One of the latest questions asked us:

I was told during a couple of recent interviews that I should go back to school and finish my Bachelors degree. I have been consistently promoted throughout my career so why should I go back now?

Completing your college degree—or starting one-- later in life as a working adult with a family at home can be far down the list of priorities, but here is why you should reconsider, particularly if your career has been on an upward track: Keep it tracking upward! Bachelor’s degrees have become a common item on the employment screening checklist. At some point in your career you are going to want a job that requires a Bachelors degree. It may be for that VP title or it may be when you lose a job and need to go back out to the marketplace, but somewhere along the way you are going to have competition for a role you want and it may come down to: Bob doesn’t have a degree and Jim does.

Being in executive placement, we see this all the time with Masters degrees. If there are two great equal candidates with similar experiences and similar compensation structures, sometimes the only thing that sets one apart is the simple fact they went back to school to get their MBA. Do they have better business acumen because of the MBA? Maybe or maybe not, but the perception is that they do and in the business world perception counts.

By not finishing a degree which you started you raise the question on whether you complete projects or leave them half done. By not beginning your degree, the question is often, “Why not”? Did you not have ambition to grow in your career? Obviously, there are some industries where having a four year degree is not the norm, but with technology becoming so advanced in most facets of life, we don’t see the trend reversing itself. By going back to school or starting school later in life you not only show you can multi-task with the best, but that you are a continuous learner and are invested and proactive in improving your career options and learning new tools and best practices.

We all know that most interviewers decide whether they like you within the first ten seconds of an interview. Having a degree or not having a degree can determine on the first run through your resume whether you will even be considered for an interview. Will having a Bachelors degree get you a job? No. But it can help ensure that you get a chance for the job. And in that interview, you can show all those other important skills like leadership and common sense that you didn’t get in school.