April 5, 2013
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I Need a Degree To Work at McDonald’s
A McDonald’s job posting received some attention when it required a college degree in order for the applicant to get hired as a cashier.
It was reported that the job posting was an error but it started a discussion. Here is the link: LinkSome people are complaining that it takes a college degree to get a good job.Do you think you need a degree to get a good job?
Comments (69)
HAMBURGER COLLEGE!
Depends on your definition of “good job”. There are jobs that pay well enough that do not require a degree.
Nope….balls yes but not a degree.
I took 8 years to go to college and went from picking up dog poop, cleaning toilets to an air conditioned office, wearing a suit, having an expense account and driving a company car. The job came with health benefits and a pension plan. Yes, my degree helped me and I had a C average and flunked out once.
In general, yes.
no, and it shouldn’t. there are cases where it helps but there are also a lot of people who climb the ladder using other methods; experience, nepotism, shady business, creativity. one of my direct supervisors often complains about how useless his degree is and that his boss is a highschool dropout. to be honest I think MOST jobs can be learned, attained through experience alone; though there are some, like doctors, that i think should always require not only a degree but continuous lifelong schooling.
Really depends on what is considered a good job. Some people think that working something they like doing is a good job. So say if someone likes working minimum wage jobs then they shouldn’t need a degree.
I was in my college’s Honors program. I had a great GPA. I have two great (what I thought) degrees in Business and Accounting. I was very involved during college and I volunteer a lot even now. And yet I’ve been on a terrible job hunt for TWO YEARS. I apparently don’t even qualify enough for a part-time bank teller job. I bet I won’t even get my church’s part-time secretary job because I’m not “qualified enough”.
A degree to be a McDonald’s cashier? Eff that.
Depends on the job you’re looking for. A degree does not guarantee a job even under the best economic circumstances, but it does sometimes help.
I think some jobs prefer applicants to have a college degree b/c it shows a determination, a stick-to-it attitude, which they apply to their offered job, feeling those people might be less inclined to quit after they’ve spent time and money on interviewing and training,.
However, to answer the question directly, ‘Do I think a college degree is necessary to get a good job?’, No; Not in all cases. There are many jobs that offer on-site training or accept trade-school applicants. However, getting your foot in the door in the first place is sometimes the challenge. Knowing someone in the business one is interested in, to find out about the unlisted job openings, helps.
There is also the question of what makes a “good” job. Is it amount of money, status, benefits, location, ammt/type of actual work required, a combination of all these, or something else? I guess it determines what one is looking to get out of it, and what they are willing to sacrifice to achieve that.
I don’t think it was an error.
Here where I live a lot of people with college degrees work at fast food places because there are no other jobs and they got real about the fact they have to take what there is, or leave the area. My oldest son is going to college not so much for a degree but for re training.
15 years of post high school education?
Yes, fuck all of you who get away with less.
You need to have a high school diploma to be a lead janitor. College degree might be pushing it.
In my area, even advanced degrees are a dime a dozen (companies post entry-level HR/marketing positions that specifically ask only for MBA graduates or candidates all the time), so there’s no way you’re going to land a job in your field without relevant experience or connections if all you’ve got is a BA or BS. 4.0 GPAs impress no one here unless they come with letters of rec and relevant internships and/or work experience. Even STEM majors aren’t immune from this; I know plenty of people with BS degrees who are unemployed or underemployed.
I wouldn’t say you need a college degree to work at McDonald’s or Target, but with the job-seeking pool full of degree-holders, it definitely helps to have one.
I love being a waitress, and I don’t need a degree for that.
I don’t think we need better degrees, I think we need better colleges. Way too many focus on Beer and Circus. And you ain’t excluded Ohio State.
Yes unless you’re going to be an enterpreneur which is really good.
Sounds more like a benchmark than anything.
I think that you should be hired on actual ability and merit, degree or not. I really despise the idea that you HAVE to have a degree to be considered qualified. Soooo… someone who wasted years and thousands of dollars to get a piece of paper with a signature of a random person is more qualified then I am, even though I have been actually doing the work for years? What if my father was a carpenter who trained me for my entire life? The kid who thinks he’s amazing for spending thousands to get a degree in 4 years is a better choice? Fuck that.
i applied to mcdonald’s before going to college and they rejected me.
An education has value regardless of what it does towards getting somebody a job. I’m sad that we have lost sight of that in the world.
Well I know a lot of people who have degrees and work crapy low paying jobs with no benefits where tehy are disrespected all day, but its harder to get a job without a degree now and days.
I don’t think you need a college education for a McD’s job. :p
No, but you need a Quarter Pounder to go to college.
In my experience, it makes it much easier to find a good one. Without one, while I was looking I found several good jobs which did not require a college degree but did not have any positions open.
I’ll put it this way… You can climb up the ladder of success, but for many people, it’s more of a step stool.
My dad is the hardest-working person I know. He never had a college degree and has worked in factories since he graduated High School. He recently got a promotion which is only a little less physically demanding, but really, he didn’t move up a great deal. Chances are, because he doesn’t have a degree and is already in his 50′s, he will never become a manager, even though he’s been a very successful group leader.
My father-in-law on the other hand is a college graduate and a manager in a factory. He’s been able to climb the ladder very high and makes a very good living.
I’m not factory material. Even though I have my dad’s work ethic, I wouldn’t last. I’m a day-dreamer… a thinker… I’m not meant for brunt labor. I can bet, without a college degree, I will be going nowhere fast.
@EmilyandAtticus - I only ever took 3 or 4 classes beyond my GED that had non-economic value.
Is working at McDonald’s a “good job” these days? I would think McDonald’s and other large chains looking for employees to fill very such job positions would be more likely to reject people with higher degrees. People with higher degrees will probably only consider it an interim job, and move on as soon as they find something better (I’m not getting into a discussion of the likelihood of ever finding anything better in this economy). And I would assume employers would prefer to hire someone for the long run.
I think more than anything, getting a job is about having connections with people in hiring positions. And if you want to get a job using a degree that you have, you need to have a degree in something USEFUL (as in engineering or computer sciences… NOT psychology, which was my stupid mistake).
In the Obama Economy not even a college degree does anyone any good.
He’s taken the poverty rate back to the 60′s and the employment rate back to the 70′s.
I think people were expecting something slightly different from “hope and change.”
Need? No, of course not.
My first job was definitely a good job when I started, and I just had
one year of college, which doesn’t really count towards anything (wasn’t
even in the same field). The job did turn into a soul-sucking vortex after a few years and some changes and pay freezes, but I was happy there for the first couple years and the pay wasn’t too bad and what raises I did get were good (both were within the first two years).
But at the same time, what my husband has found, is that some low paying, entry level jobs are still ‘demanding’ you have at least an associate’s degree (which can easily cost over 40k). One he found requires a degree and some number of years of experience, and doesn’t even pay enough to live decently in our area.
Things that factor in: What do you have to offer a company? What field are you looking in? Who do you know? How well did you do in high school and past jobs? What experience do you have? Are you willing to relocate? What do YOU consider to be a “good” job? Etc.
I will say that too many companies have their heads up their asses about the whole degree thing. Having a degree doesn’t prove anything. A high school diploma doesn’t, either. I’d have no qualms hiring a high school dropout as long as they were trainable and could do the job and do it well.
The whole mentality just puts people into heavy debt, which snowballs
into other problems I’m not even going to get into. It’s not making us
any smarter. It sure as hell (figure of speech) doesn’t mean people are
better at their jobs, either.
Bachelor’s degrees don’t make sense to me, either. From what I’ve seen, an associate’s degree is to the point, “This is what you need to know”. A bachelor’s degree is, “Here’s what you need to know and you also need to waste time and money taking these other classes that have nothing to do with your major”. (I’ll never understand what “African American Studies” has to do with a B.S. in Chemistry, but sure, we’ll pretend that made any sense.)
I have heard this all of my life – and ALWAYS from people too lazy to go to college. The BEST jobs and therefore the highest paying jobs DEFINITELY require a college education. You cannot just major in art history and archeology and expect to get a job – that is where McDonalds finds people with degrees to make burgers – while the Upper level managers have Statistics and MBA degrees.
@tjordanm - No idea what that means sorry.
depends on the job you want…and the laws in place and whatnot…
but in general, no. not at all.
@EmilyandAtticus - I mean, 90% of education is worthless–both for making money and any other enhancement or value.
Personally, I think it seems like you do need a degree to get a good job.
Or just a LOT of luck.
@tjordanm - Too bad you see it that way, although that shows why you were unable to convey a simple written idea. In trying to be nasty you really just proved my point.
@EmilyandAtticus - I’m trying to be nasty? Have I offended or insulted you in some way?
It depends on what you’re considering when you look for a “good job.” It’s more of a status symbol than anything else, I think.
I have no respect for people who waste their time going to College. All them sissy eltists want you to think people with degrees are so smart. I ain’t ever known no one who learned nothing from going to college. They just had their heads filled with all that pro-gay communism science crap by them liberal professors. If you wanna work on my shift down at the mill you best try and impress me with what you done, not what you learned about at some queer-ass university.The only school that impresses me is the one I graduated from – the school of hard knox!
No it does not, but a lot of government and large companies use degrees as a way to filter out the illiterates in jobs that have no need of a degree. That will last as long as the economy sucks and they can get away with it. I did not finished my degree until long after I had my job. I did it only because i was close to done and I could. It helps me not one little bit
Well, if you want to be the manager at McDonald’s then yes. For a cashier position? No.
A college degree to work at the kind of job people do when they’re trying to earn money for college seems a bit odd to me…
@SKANLYN - I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic or not. If you are disregard this reply.
I quite enjoy going to college. It has assisted me in developing stronger time management methods as well as *gasp* learn many new subjects.
@ImNotUglyIJustNeedLove - The president isn’t the only person who makes decisions at government level. Also, he has to deal with the decisions made by former presidents and the effects of those decisions.
@ChainBracelets - If we are still blaming President Bush for today’s economy, that means he was in charge of the economic policy during his administration.
When will President Obama begin taking charge? He’s been in office going on five years now.
no. i ended up in engineering without a degree.
@EmilyandAtticus - And formal education is not the only option. You can teach yourself and be far more qualified if you actually put effort into it.
Yes, and it’s getting worse because college is largely subsidized. This means it is profitable for a college to admit a student who is less than competitive, and so more people are admitted into college. And since most people’s college tuition is subsidized, more people are going to attempt to go to college. It’s a circular problem, all created by government. But its effect is more college-educated individuals in the workforce and thus higher standards are placed on education, which also contributes to said circular problem because the demand is going to create even more applicants to college. Now any moron short of mediocre has a bachelor’s degree, so you need a master’s to get a legitimate professional position.
@SKANLYN - I agree with this minus the bigotry and the fact that you are being sarcastic.
I find these stories difficult to believe. I have a degree, and am consistently told I’m over-qualified for positions at fast-food, convenience, and grocery stores.
Bill Gates is part of a group of computer men that is paying certain teens $100,000 to NOT go to college. The kids are invited to go straight from graduating high school to work at one of the computer companies where they are trained on the job. My cousins’ 17 year old son has been invited in.
I can understand how certain positions require some kind of formal training. Just because I’m a salaried manager, and have 15 years experience with safety prevention in the work place, doesn’t mean I’m qualified to work for OSHA, or another type of position having to do with OSHA Compliance within the work place.
A degree in what, Hamburglery and Loss Prevention?
Management, sure even though some just work their way up to it.
Haha, just go to Panera. They’ll hire anyone as long as they have at least one hand.
Some of the most capable people I know don’t have college degrees, and some of the dumbest do. It depends on the job, but for a lot of jobs I think employers should be more concerned about work ethic and common sense. If you have those 2 things you can do pretty much anything.
And no, I don’t work at Panera any more. Worst 3 months of my life.
@EmilyandAtticus - I am completely on board with the idea that education has an intrinsic value. But the education bubble has pushed the cost of getting a college and grad school education so beyond the actual value of most of these degrees that it is very reasonable for people to question the economic value of the degrees. It’s typically not worth 100K to major in english literature and graduate with non-existent job prospects, even if that person gained intrinsic value through that education. (Of course, if money is not an issue, then it still could be worth it.)
I actually DIDN’T need my degree to get the job I have now. All I had to do was pass the civil service test. Government work might be boring as shit, but money is money. Every state is different though. I don’t know if other states do temp-to-hire the way PA does.
@whataboutbahb - It doesn’t cost that much here. Even if it did, that wouldn’t diminish the value of education. It would just mean that some jackasses are blocking access to it. Different issue.
@EmilyandAtticus - Tuition on education has been rising at a much, much faster rate than inflation across the entire country. Which makes sense, since the federal government got involved in student loans, making it possible for anyone and everyone to take out huge loans. Schools adjusted their prices according, until its gotten to a point where it’s ridiculous. Tuition doesn’t match job prospects and schools with poor job placement can get away with charging as much as schools with good job placement because the general public has associated any sort of higher education as being what you do to get a job. The backlash against this idea has started, but it’s still got a ways to go.
Thus, it’s not really that jerks are blocking access to it–it’s that the government-backed loans have allowed everyone access to very large loans, allowing prices to sky-rocket. We now have a generation with many young adults that have student debts that greatly overshadow their current (and foreseeable future) earning capacity. You may have local community colleges and state schools that are comparatively cheap to the other options, which is great, but many people have been and continue to choose private colleges, take out large student loans, and then end-up with a lot of debt and poor prospects.
I have loved my experience in college, grad school, and law school, but I’ve been fortunate to have scholarships and loving parents who have allowed me to have a very low debt burden compared to other people I know. That said, I still have around 30K of debt. Fortunately, I go to a law school with decent job placement and I should be able to pay that off without a problem. (Over-priced tuition is a huge problem for law schools, where most law schools are simply not worth it. E.g., Many law schools cost ~50K in tuition/yr (which doesn’t include cost of living) and these same schools only place around 5-10% of their grads into jobs that pay enough to be able to comfortable handle that much debt after graduation.)
The cost of education in this country is a huge problem. Learning and gaining knowledge is a huge part of my life, but a lot of colleges and grad schools are simply not worth the cost anymore. And the idea that everyone needs a college education might be a flawed one that helped get us into this mess.
@EmilyandAtticus -
A depressing game: The tuition for the college I went to was ~20K (including room and board) my freshmen year. I just looked up how much it costs now: ~40K (including room and board). That increase occurred over less than 10 years. I’m pretty sure the value of that degree didn’t increase 100% (or whatever the percentage would be when taking into account inflation) in less than 10 years . (The value actually probably decreased.)
BA – gets your foot in the door for a “regular” job
BS – gets your foot in the door for a better-than-regular job
advanced degree – a “good job”
specialized training – “very good job”
degree + specialized training – “great job”
truthfully, corporations today are screwing the american workforce by relying heavily on non-permanent employee positions. you have to really have what they want in order to land a “great” job.
@whataboutbahb - The degree is priceless. But I agree with you, costs like that are outrageous and make education not accessible for everybody. And that is bad for society. It makes me so sad, and that is just so wrong.
@whataboutbahb - I disagree. Jackasses are blocking access. Education in my country doesn’t cost what it does in yours so it’s obviously possible to make it more available.
@EmilyandAtticus - Country? Sorry for assuming you were in the U.S.–thought it was a safe assumption for the majority of people on Xanga.
@EmilyandAtticus - Learning is priceless, degrees are not. I think it’s a dangerous way of thinking that degrees are worth whatever the cost, because that leads to schools being able to continue to increase tuition without fearing a loss in demand (as long as student loans are available to anyone). Education should be a cost/benefit analysis. There is nothing wrong with including non-economic benefits into that equation, but a person should still be aware and account for the costs. And sometimes educations are not worth it. I can tell you right now that at least 90% of the law schools in the U.S. are absolutely not worth their “sticker” tuition cost for most people. But people still flood through their doors and happily pay that amount, which means these schools don’t need to lower tuition and/or consider other ways of making their degree more cost-effective.
@whataboutbahb - I’m really unclear as to why you keep sending me these long comments. This isn’t my blog and obviously I do not agree with you. You aren’t going to say anything to change my mind.
Sorry. I wasn’t intending to antagonistic. I was trying to have a conversation, not an argument. I thought you might be open to considering the perspective of someone close to the education bubble that is occurring in the U.S. I’m plenty interested in knowing more about the education system where you are and how access is limited. I’m sympathetic to your position because I think learning is the most valuable thing in the world. It’s just that thinking that “degrees are worth whatever the cost” is a contributing cause to the current education bubble in the U.S.
i think people in customer service deserve way more money than some people working in jobs that do require degrees.
Going to college seems to have screwed my chances of getting any job at all. After graduating college, I worked at the Taco Bell across the street from the college I had graduated from. For two years. My manager and half of the managerial staff were college graduates, and couldn’t get work anywhere else. I tried finding jobs in town, only to be told that I was overeducated and underexperienced. I moved 700 miles away to try to change that, but it seems that I’m still screwed. I got laid off from the office job I got when I first moved here because my department was being automated. I’m still screwed for experience, like I was in Arkansas, but now I can’t even get menial labor jobs because I have a college education. Writing and journalism won’t pay, they just promote your work. And I can’t get a job in anything educational, even tutoring or substitute teaching because I don’t have a teacher’s license. It would take another year and a half of school and student loans to get a teacher’s license. Odd thing is, my fiancee, who has no formal education to speak of, is having no problems with employment. He has two jobs. I have zero. It’s really really really really frustrating. My only option now is to maybe hopefully land a job in professional theatre.
The stuff you are writing blows out my mind. wendys job application