Comments on: Self Qualified & Degree-less: How to Sneak in the Back Door to Your Career

By: The Dame

The Dame — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:35:41 +0000

I finished high school, but I dropped out of the conventional 9-5 bullshit in my early 20′s having worked since I was 15.

I have no qualifications but Ive been a voracious reader, am a fast learner, curious, observant and if I wanted to, could run a business with employees by myself.

So, I fully endorse the ability to become self qualified. It takes having an open mind, a need for knowledge, being inquisitive, learning from others and reading books to do so.

By: Chris Wolfe

Chris Wolfe — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:28:32 +0000

I read this a couple months ago and stored it away for future reference. Coming back to it again I’m impressed again with how simply you’ve laid out key points to a process that can be so chaotic and fraught. It’s an excellent primer for the next steps I’m taking in my unconventional career as a storyteller, coach, and performer. Thank you for getting information out.

By: INEO – Entrevista – Jonathan Mead

INEO – Entrevista – Jonathan Mead — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 09:37:15 +0000

[...] I don’t think you need any special qualifications to get paid to do what you love and to live a deliberate life. I think you can be self-qualified and find a back door to enter through. I actually wrote an article about that here. [...]

By: Minimalist Ninja

Minimalist Ninja — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:45:11 +0000

Great post Jonathan! So many of us haven’t achieved society’s acceptable level of institutional education, and a post such as this really needed to be written.

By: Voranc

Voranc — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:18:01 +0000

Thank you for this post, it came at the perfect time!

By: Linda Sewell

Linda Sewell — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:47:00 +0000

GREAT post…one of your best, IMHO!
GIVE YOURSELF AWAY is the best advice for someone starting a new venture…
I married and started my family at age 20, so I didn’t have the luxury of going to college. I wanted to be a “commercial artist” (this was a long time ago) so I took a job as a secretary at an agency…learned the business from that perspective and ended up starting my own freelance business. Granted, I gave a lot of my time and energy away, but I was learning my craft and didn’t expect to earn top dollar while I was still making mistakes. My graphic design friends kept chanting “never work on speculation” but sorry guys – I did a LOT of that just to build my portfolio. I can understand why someone with an expensive degree would resent the people who open their own shops “with no qualifications” – but from my experience, being honest about your qualifications with potential clients gives them the opportunity to choose to pay more for an experienced professional, or pay less and give an up-and-coming designer a chance to prove their ability. If I didn’t have a paying client for a time, I’d pretend that I did and work just as hard on my portfolio with fictional companies and products. The point is, anyone can put their name and title on a business card and just DO it (thanks, Nike!) – and though that doesn’t make you an “expert” – it does give you the confidence to say who you are and to what you aspire. Then you have to put up or shut up when the paying customers start calling…

By: Dan @ Anxiety Support Network

Dan @ Anxiety Support Network — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:37:57 +0000

Good post about taking the road less traveled. People, for the most part, aren’t taught to take this road in life and because of its unfamiliarity, it is a very scary one to most.

But, another important point to keep in mind is that it is fun, you learn a heck of a lot, and you get a great story to tell. I am not a full-time entrepreneur yet, but I am navigating the path, and it’s always inspiring to see others discuss it. Thanks for the post!

By: mutuelle

mutuelle — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:50:41 +0000

Dear jon, I do not find the words to qualify your article :)

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:05:14 +0000

Man, this is crazy! I remember when this site was still brand new, (Seriously, I think I was here when you only had like 5 posts, not even a guest entry on Zen Habits. I remember watching this blog grow and seeing your guest posts become more and more frequent on Zen Habits, I started to see you on other personal development blog rolls.

Then you dissapeared for like two weeks straight only to come back and announce you were working on an eBook.

I’ve seen the evolution of a blog(ger) go from absolute beginner to professional and successful.

All thanks to you. Not to mention you’ve helped lift my mood countless times.

Cheers Jonothan… Mead? For some reason I remember you as Mr Mead, I don’t know why. Maybe thats your sir name or something… Anyway I’m rambling now so I’ll stop.

… Now.

By: Duff

Duff — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 09:41:31 +0000

Self-qualifying is a pretty conventional path amongst personal development gurus and Life Coaches. I’ve done a lot of it myself, for better and worse. Self-qualifying has advantages and disadvantages.

For instance, Joe Vitale and others have sought out and attained Ph.D.’s from online diploma mills to gain the appearance of expertise. James Arthur Ray appeared on Oprah and Larry King Live, giving him the necessary fame to bilk many thousands of victims out of almost $10,000 each for his deadly workshops.

Many people argue that this kind of self-qualifying is what gave Ray the power to abuse people and that we should only listen to qualified therapists, rabbis, etc. Yet not all of the self-educated and self-qualified are scammers and frauds, and some legit doctors and therapists hurt and manipulate others (hence things like malpractice insurance).

Even amongst the schooled, some amount of selling yourself and networking is necessary for success. In entrepreneurship specifically, success often depends very strongly upon who you know and your reputation…and who has the biggest list.

Advantages to self-education and qualification include thinking in ways not taught in school and “street smarts” which can evade the academically minded. The drawbacks include lack of critical thinking and higher propensity towards fraudulent activity and petty fame-seeking.

Advantages to institutional education include rigorous training in thinking, participation in an established field with a time-tested methodology of study and practice, and much easier credibility (yet some amount of politics, fame-seeking, and selling yourself still applies within academia). Drawbacks include overspecialization, elitism, often a lack of thinking “outside the box” of how you were taught.