The Comparable Value of Life Experience

As a veteran communications professional, I've had responsibility to hire junior communicators during my career. One question that comes up regularly is whether a university degree adds to an applicant's qualifications. On the surface, the answer would be yes. But what if an other applicant, with no university degree, has other valuable skills or assets? How should those be judged when narrowing your selection?

For myself - I feel I have something better than a university degree from 25+ years ago. When I graduated from high school, I went to Europe for a year as an exchange student in Sweden. While most of my friends were partying it up through their first year of university, I was learning an entirely new culture, new language and independence that has stayed with me ever since. While my high school friends spent the second through fourth years of university catching up on grades so that they could graduate, I had joined the Canadian Armed Forces and was learning about team work - something you cannot survive basic training without - and self-discipline. During my three and a half years in the military, I learned about national pride, international awareness, structure, and of course communications in the most literal sense of the word as I was a telecommunications operator.

I don't discount for a second the value of a university degree. I would like to have one. But I would want it in addition, not instead of, my life experience and a double diploma from a well known and highly regarded technical college and I have taken a lot of university courses as a part time student. However, I also have something way more valuable than a degree. I have accreditation from the International Association of Business Communicators. Like the shoemaker's children, communicators seem not to be all that great at communicating how truly valuable an ABC (accredited business communicator) title is. I'm here to tell you how valuable it is.

First of all - you need to have a minimum of nine years hands on, full-time experience working in the communicatons/public relations field before you can even begin the accreditation process. Once you have that, you are required to submit a portfolio of your work with full and detailed case studies demonstrating what your role was in the work, what the objectives were, what was achieved and how you evaluated it. That is a lot of work - and that portfolio is then judged by top international communicators. Only if you pass this first test do you go on to the written and oral exams which are also marked by top international communicators. Achieving your ABC means you have met stringent international standards in the communications field. As a CEO, would you rather have on your senior management team - someone who earned their bachelor of arts degree in the 1980's or someone who has achieved international communications accreditation?

In the book "Good to Great" by Jim Collins, one company is lauded for its stance on education. "Nucor illustrates a key point. In determining 'the right people,' the good-to-great companies placed greater weight on character attributes than on specific educational background, practical skills, specialized knowledge, or work experience. Not that specific knowledge or skills are unimportant, but they viewed these traits as more teachable or at least learnable, whereas they believed dimensions like character, work ethic, basic intelligence, dedication to fulfilling commitments, and values are ingrained."

I love that I have the life experience, from military to travel to education to work, that I do have. I grew up in a house where my dad would get up at 2 in the morning and uncomplainingly go out in a blizzard or terrible rain storm to fix a downed telephone line. I grew up in a house where being frugal was not a fad, it was how we survived. I grew up in a house where my mom made sure we ate breakfast and made us lunch before she went to work for minimum wage and tips at the curling rink restaurant most evenings. I love the work ethic and life experience I have come to call my own. How lucky I feel to be who I am.