This thread has been extremely interesting for me. I am not a college graduate though I have some college under my belt. I am a hard worker and managed to climb to a management position with a company who looked at experience more than degrees. I walked away from that position over a year ago because of the intolerably hostile work environment created by the senior project manager whom I now find out was embezzling like crazy from the company. (Definitely explains the extreme paranoia)
I can relate to extreme contradictions of upper management telling you to "think outside of the box, but only if it fits their expectations." Now that I am working a data entry job at less than half the salary of my former management position, (I live in an economically depressed area) and am planning to move very shortly to a larger metropolitan area with more job opportunities, I have been plagued by the fear that no one will want to hire me because, a) I'm over 40 and, b) I have no degree. All the ads I see online and in the paper require a degree. My daughter got a very nice entry level position with a computer science degree. She makes more money than I could ever dream of making on a 9 to 5 job. It adds to the illusion that a degree is the key to happiness. Now I need to rethink everything because from this thread, I can see that this is not always true. Sherelle
