Do You Need A Degree For A Career In Management?
Management is the kind of career that can be incredibly enjoyable. In fact, it’s easy to think of five reasons why being the manager of anything can feel like you’ve hit the career jackpot:
- You’re able to oversee production; perfect if you’ve got a keen eye for details and can identify problems before they occur.
- You get to help and mold the careers of the people you are managing, meaning that you have a direct, and hopefully positive, impact on their lives.
- You don’t have to worry as much as a regular worker about having a boss breathing down your neck. Most of the time, you’re the boss. While you might have a supervisor, you have the freedom to make the decisions as your expertise sees fit.
- You’ll be on a good salary, with good benefits. Every business in the country, from Applebee’s through to banking institutions, tends to treat their managers well.
- There is a possibility for further promotion once you have proved yourself in your first management role.
When all is said and done, management is a pretty good deal.
However, management has changed a lot in recent years, and not always for the better.
Graduate Schemes for Management
A trend has been developing across a number of different industries for years now. It is becoming more and more common for companies to recruit their management not from the front line, but fresh out of college. And sometimes, fresh out of a not particularly relevant college degree. The mere fact that these former students are graduates is seen as a sign of their potential, and many companies are trying to capture this promise for themselves straight out of the gate.
If you don’t have a degree, then this means you’re cut off from the now standard entryway into management. This change is a fairly new development. In years gone by, no one would have been parachuted into a management position without working on the “front line”, so to speak. The progression would have been more natural; recruiting from within. So the teenager who filled out an Applebee’s online application, so they could earn some extra pocket money could, one day, be a manager or even a franchisee of their own restaurant. The banking cashier who took a weekend job could, one day, be the manager of an entire branch. This was the standard method.
The End of The Standard Method
As the jobs market has become more saturated and the competition for jobs reaches fever pitch, the emphasis on a degree became more important. A degree alone is now meant to be enough to justify offering someone a management position; even if they’ve never worked for the company before in their entire life. Unsurprisingly, frontline workers, faced with a manager who doesn’t really know how the business works, don’t much care for this. Sadly, it looks like graduate schemes will be here to stay. So what does that mean for you?
Can You Be A Manager Without A Degree?
The short answer is: yes.
The long answer is: yes, but it might take you a lot longer to get there.
‘Working up’ a company, progressing through the internal ladder, is largely an action of the past. Hiring from within is far less common than it used to be. Companies now try to hire fresh graduates rather than promote their own staff. Plenty of people have pondered why this is, but that doesn’t help you.
The truth is that if you want to move into management, then you might need to obtain some kind of qualification to do it. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to spend four years obtaining a degree. An additional vocational qualification could be just as useful, and gives you a reason to approach your boss about the potential of moving up the ranks.
If you aren’t already in an entry level job and are thinking of a career in management, then the truth is that you’re going to need a degree. Few businesses, if any at all, are going to be comfortable hiring a manager who is without both direct experience of the business and a recognized qualification. If you don’t have the time or inclination to undertake a college course, then look for entry level jobs where you might eventually be able to progress from within.
