What is it with the number “92%”? I’ve decided over the last month that whenever anyone quotes me a placement rate of “ninety-two percent” that they’re most likely being both untruthful and running a scam.
Last week I asked for information about medical coding. I need to work at home and am tired of what I presently do, so I figured a change would be good. I got at least a dozen emails from various people with concrete information about the field. While I was waiting for those emails I did some calling around to various local for-profit career colleges.
It would seem that the world is full of people who are sick of their current job, wish they could make more money and have swallowed the You Must Have A College Degree line. I personally have bundles of college credits. I can tell you all about the Soviet governmental system, go into excruciating detail about scientific methodology, banter about the high points in human philosophy and analyse fairy tales and novels. Imagine my surprise when none of these skills translated directly into employability. The best use of my college education so far has been the ability to write a few mildly interesting blog posts. Whee!
But these colleges–these for-profit schools–have figured that out. And they’ve got their patter down to a science. For somewhere between twelve and twenty thousand dollars anyone can receive either a degree or a certification in some type of technical discipline. The placement rate into jobs for these graduates is (you guessed it) 92%. At every single school. University of Phoenix. Tennessee Career College. Remington College. Southeastern Career College.
Now of course I was already wary of “92%”, seeing as that was the number the J L Kirk lady gave us. I think from now on I’m going to call “92%” the Carny Number. It’s close enough to one hundred to seem like success, but unrounded enough to look factual.
And here is where I say how much I love my readers and other bloggers. Because while I spent most of last Thursday being fed the 92% garbage from various tech schools, I got a whole lot of pure knowledge via email. Tons of truth were laid down in my inboxes. The truth is that there is a glut on the Medical Coder market. You do have to have a degree for medical coding, usually something along the lines of an associate’s in Healthcare Adminsitration. The one-year tech certification is not enough. And there are really no at-home jobs available. If you are in the field for a number of years then you can earn a sort of “work-at-home” status, but the major Nashville hirers are all for in-office work. And here’s the kicker. A career in medical coding pays somewhere between $25K and $32K. That’s a very poor return on your investment in a degree.
The sad fact is that most degrees are good for the knowledge only. Unless you become a degreed licensed professional, i.e. a doctor,nurse, teacher, lawyer or engineer–one of the career paths where a degree is required to become licensed to practice–once you’re out in the world of work your college education is nothing more than a nice set of books in boxes in storage. Pretty much everyone knows that by now. The For Profit colleges are playing tricks on people’s minds. The public see medicine and law as solid careers, and know that you have to have a degree to be a doctor or lawyer. So these very expensive schools charge a lot of money to give you degrees to be a Medical Secretary or a Paralegal. It isn’t worth it, especially knowing you can get the same type of degree for a third the cost from MTSU or TSU. I’m 92% certain of that.
I need to send you an email – not about coding but something potentially else. Look for it shortly…
Unfortunately, my brother is in the opposite situation. He’s trying to become a cop, and he is pretty much qualified, five years in the Marine Corps guarding embassies in the Middle East and all, but now he needs a piece of paper saying he’s smart, so he is going for a degree.
I agree with what you say above, but adding to the conversation.
10 years ago I got a job in marketing making $36k. On the job application they asked if I had a degree. I left the question blank because I figured telling them I completed only 3 full years of college while working full time for 10 years in the marketing field would automatically put me on the reject list.
So I got the job, worked there for a month, made all kinds of progress for the company and then one day Ms. human resources shows up in my office with a grave look on her face. She said they found out I didn’t finish school and would have to fire me. I went to the department head to discuss it and he told me there was nothing he would do because he needed a college grad. I told him I had far more experience than a college grad with proven successes. He told me…get this…he couldn’t make an exception because it was costing him a lot of money to send his son to school and it wouldn’t be fair to give this job to someone who didn’t have a degree. Fair to whom?
Funny thing is, during my university years while I was already working full time in marketing, the school was teaching outdated marketing tactics that were old and not used in the real world anymore. At work we used all the latest techniques and technology, stuff the university wasn’t even teaching yet. Oh well.
Yep… adding my voice to the rest. In LA I had no problems getting a job in the industry without a degree. Hollywood really is all about who you know, and what experience you have, more than what you know or what papers you have. But here… here I struggled long and hard and couldn’t find an open door as long as I didn’t have a BS or BA tied to my name. I did finally manage to find a job, a decent paying one at that, without a degree, but it still qualifies as semi-clerical (I’m not an assistant but I’m only one step away) and I can’t move up into something more without a degree.
So, I did the same as you, looked around at the options for “adult learners”. Let’s see, pay $54k for a degree thru Lipscomb (based on last year’s per-credit hour tuition), $55k for one thru Belmont, drive all the way down to MTSU every weeknight for 4 years, for a little less money, and a lot more hassle. Ditto driving into downtown for TSU….none of those appealed to me, as I’m not interested in being in debt to Sallie Mae until I’m in my 70s. Utlimately I found a school that’s not-so-much for profit and for $2500 a term (two terms a year) I can self-pace a degree with online classes and such, and get a little paper that says BS in Business Management in about 3 years ($15k total, which my company will pay most of, THANK GOD) from a fully accredited university, approved by my employer (one of the largest in Nashville).
No, its not the best school or the best education but I can’t afford either anyway. Yes, it’s a pain in the ass, and still gonna cost me some money, but I’ll have the paper that says what I’ve known all along — I’m an intelligent, bright, educated woman worth hiring.
Stupid that you need it, I don’t get it when a person has tons of experience, but there it is… the truth of HR, at least in Nashville. They want a degree, period.