Education background vs. your hands-on experience
Q: I have hands-on work experience instead of a college degree and wonder if that is holding me back from progressing in my career. I am considering going to school to pursue a degree, but I don’t know about the expense or the time away from work. What are your thoughts about the experience of a degree?
A: It is not an either/or answer with a degree(s) or experience instead, we are in a labor market on the verge of significant technological changes and labor shortages in some areas.
Seeking a college degree is not necessarily a wrong decision. However, to make a good choice, you must spend some time on self-reflection and your work experience.
Naturally, specific career fields demand more focused skills and more knowledge that requires a college or higher degree. You must meet certain educational requirements and pass state and national examinations to practice in some specialized areas.
However, a college degree does not always guarantee success in your career. Some significant employers who once had a degree as a requirement to work in their organization have now reconsidered. Attending college is only sometimes the path for everyone. But acknowledging the contributions of your work experience is being recognized as significant.
Soren Kaplan, Ph.D., is an awardwinning author who wrote Experiential Intelligence, Harness the Power of Experience for Personal and Business Breakthrough. This book takes a different approach by helping you understand how your life experiences add to your unique skills when pursuing a career.
It has been over 100 years since IQ Intellectual Intelligence was introduced to assess Intelligence. In the 1990s, EQ, Emotional Intelligence, became popular in describing your ability to regulate emotions and use empathy to navigate work and personal relationships.
Kaplan describes XQ, Experiential Intelligence, as a third component of assessing your experiences. XQ is the combination of mindsets, abilities, and the know-how you acquired from life experience that drives you to pursue your goals.
One of the reasons Kaplan’s work is important is that it gives you more depth and understanding towards talking about your skills in a meaningful way that can be as significant as a degree. Employers are beginning to realize that Intelligence has a broader context, just as regulating your emotions helps you with leadership and working with others.
In today’s fast-changing environment where technology is disrupting the labor market, bringing your Experiential Intelligence to the workplace can help you adapt and tap into a different way of solving problems — using your Intelligence developed out of experience.
According to Kaplan, Your Experiential Intelligence exists on three levels, and understanding how your experiences have helped you develop certain mindsets can add to your career growth.
The first level is the most tangible aspect — the know-how, which includes your practical knowledge and skills. The second level involves your abilities, which guide how you apply your knowledge and skills to use them most effectively. For example, how you use your ability to manage uncertainty during times of change.
The third level is the mindset, which consists of your attitudes and beliefs about yourself, others, and the world.
When you recognize self-awareness in your mindsets, abilities, and know-how, you grow your Experiential Intelligence. Taking it a step further, you increase your ability to control your career path when you understand what led to your mindset.
Developing your Experiential Intelligence will help you become a better leader.
When progressing in your career, think about how your hands-on work experience has given you the skills needed to help solve problems and contribute to the success of your employer.
Pursuing a college degree can be a worthwhile goal because it exposes you to new ways of thinking, and you share a common bond with your classmates that can last throughout your career. But never discount that your life experiences will always enrich your career to help you stand out.