How are you Monetizing using your Degree or Certificates

[Jonathan Whatley]

Today I work for an accredited college, earn a ~$70k salary + excellent benefits […]

The Bachelor degrees are pretty much useless with the only exception potentially being engineering degrees. The other degrees just don't teach students enough topics and skills that are relevant in the real world. I have hired quite a few people working for the University in the past 10 or so years

Ten years into employment, you're earning about 70K and excellent benefits working in IT. Congratulations!

The National Association of Colleges and Employers collects data from U.S. employers on starting salaries for new college graduates. For Computer Science majors hired, within their survey population, they report a national average starting salary of 64 800.

This average starting salary, for Class of 2013 CS graduates, is only about 8% away from your salary today. You've been with your employer for about 10 years at least. Of course you may have been working with the university or in IT even longer. "10 or so years" is only how long you've hired people there.

and I have often hired someone with no formal education if they could demonstrate that they can do the job. In fact, I once fought the HR department over me not wanting to include that at least a High School diploma is necessary for the job. I insisted that High School wasn't necessary, what was necessary was knowing C#, .Net, and JavaScript. There is a skill test during hiring and there's an interview, for both it's totally irrelevant whether someone spend years of their life and thousands of dollars on a degree.

An honest question about HS non-completers, or HS graduates with no college, who you hire based on skill tests: How many of this group starts at or near 64 800 (in constant 2013 dollars)? How many reach 64 800, say, four years later?

NACE Salary Surveys (National Association of Colleges and Employers)