A word of warning about test-out degrees.

[taylor]

In today's market, you pretty much need two things to get a good job:

1) Experience
2) A degree

This may not be the case for certain fields, but for the most part, it's true. I'm in sales, which in the past hasn't always required a degree. It still doesn't require the degree, but you need a ton of good experience (and LOTS of networking) to get your resume past the recruiter. In many companies, even if your experience is awesome, your resume is not ever sent to the hiring manager because you're screened out.

I would imagine that the point that the author of this post was trying to make is not to expect every job you want to be yours simply because you have a degree. A degree with no experience will land you an entry-level job. But once you work your way up, you hopefully will be able to apply for more jobs that require the piece of paper.

I agree, this has been my experience too. I think experience and a degree go hand in hand in this job market. I'm in sales too, and I know I couldn't have gotten this job without a degree, even though I had a lot of sales experience previously being self employed. Even though my job can be considered entry level by some since it's not a manager position, the pay is not entry level and I get the weekends off which I can't complain about in this economy.