Degree or Certificate? Which Credential Do Employers Value More?

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As you’re scoping the job market, chances are that you’ve come across a few job vacancies that require a bachelor’s degree. This additional requirement for a degree has eliminated 64% of working-aged adults as they do not hold a degree, according to Harvard Business School.

1. Google Cybersecurity Certificate – Get on the fast track to a career in cybersecurity.

2. Natural Language Processing in TensorFlow – Build NLP systems

3. Python for Everybody – Develop programs to gather, clean, analyze, and visualize data

4. Google IT Support Professional Certificate

5. AWS Cloud Solutions Architect – Professional Certificate

Naturally, organisations and employers have a preference when it comes to bachelor degrees, as an educated workforce tends to have a higher rate of productivity, as stated by the Economic Policy Institute. Narrowing the pool of applications by adding a bachelor’s degree requirement is also an easy route for many companies.

However, things are different. With the growth of data-driven solutions and new opportunities that AI brings to the table. Rather than being able to find overly skilled employees they once upon a time wanted, companies are not looking for employees who are willing to reskill and upskill are crucial.

Just like everyone else, I have found myself steering away from these job posts due to the lack of a degree. When I decided to pursue a career in Data Science, I didn’t have the time or finances to commit to a 3-year degree. My time was precious as I had to make money therefore I opted for a Data Science bootcamp. This Bootcamp would take me 9 months and I would only have to pay a % back once I earned over a certain amount.

Understanding your Career Goals

If I could go back and I had to choose between certification and a degree, I would say neither is the wrong route. However, you need to look further into the future. Is this a short-term goal for your career or do you want to keep building your long-term career goal?

Harvard Business School summarized in a recent report: “Jobs do not require four-year degrees, Employers do.” However, with that being said, many employers have chosen to drop bachelor’s degree requirements to cater to the current market needs.

You can take up a professional certificate to meet your short-term goal of getting your foot into the sector and starting from the bottom. However, if you want to eventually advance in your career and move onto different positions, what do you need to obtain that? Understanding what you want now vs what you want later on is key to helping you make the right choice.

How do you figure this out? Research.

If you have an idea of your short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals, you will want to dive in and do some research. For example, you may want to start as a junior data scientist and then eventually make your way up to a lead data scientist. But your goals may not end here, you may want to take it a little further and state that your end goal is to become a Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

The best thing you can do is research and review job postings for these job titles, from entry-level up to senior level. Dive into the education requirements, and the years of experience, as well as find other people on platforms such as LinkedIn to review their educational path.

Professional Certification or a Degree?

Once you have done in-depth research on your career path and how you aim to get there, you will need to ask yourself do I want to get to the first destination straight away or am I willing to take a few years out before I get there.

Professional certificates do not take a long time to complete and cost much less in comparison to degrees. They focus on technical skill development over soft skills which help you progress in a workforce setting. Professional certificates can be a great route for you to experience your interest in a short time frame and ensure this is what you want to do. You can reskill without losing too much of your time, as you would with a bachelor’s or master’s degree.

On the other hand, bachelor’s and master’s degrees take more time to complete and come at a cost. However, they can be worth it. Not only will you develop technical skills, but you will also be able to build soft skills such as critical thinking and creativity. Hard and soft skills go hand-in-hand when you want to be successful in the workforce. It is also well known that degrees raise your salary and you face lower unemployment risks in comparison to employees who do not acquire higher education. Although entry-level vacancies are dropping the requirement for bachelor’s degrees, to advance in your career you may require one.

Where Should I Start?

You need to go back to your goals. Your goals will help you understand what your next steps are. If you are starting something completely new, for example going from marketing to data analytics, your best bet is to start with short-term programs such as professional certifications.

The majority of people change their careers a few times in their adult life – it’s normal. The last thing you want to do is commit to a career solely based on the fact that you sacrificed 3 or 4 years at University.

The beauty of this day and age is that you have a variety of options if you want to go down both routes. The different e-learning platforms allow you to take professional certificates and degrees at your own pace. Time is no longer a bearing factor, the only decision you need to make is whether you want to take the short-term path or the long-term path.

Here are some different career paths you can go down using both routes:

Data Science

Professional Certificates:

University Degrees:

Data Engineering

Professional Certificates:

University Degrees:

Data Analyst

Professional Certificates:

University Degrees:

Wrapping Up

Looking at the above list of professional certificates and degrees, you can see one major difference and similarity. The majority of the professional certificates are fine-tuned to a specific career, for example, data science or data engineering. However, the degrees are more broad and cover all types of jobs.

With this being said, if you are unsure of the route you want to specifically go down, taking a degree may be your better option so you can figure it out on the journey.
 
 

Nisha Arya is a data scientist, freelance technical writer, and an editor and community manager for KDnuggets. She is particularly interested in providing data science career advice or tutorials and theory-based knowledge around data science. Nisha covers a wide range of topics and wishes to explore the different ways artificial intelligence can benefit the longevity of human life. A keen learner, Nisha seeks to broaden her tech knowledge and writing skills, while helping guide others.