If you wanted to learn to drive a race car, would you look up one of the Andretti brothers or go down to the local arcade and pick the kid who had the high score on the Gran Turismo game?  If you wanted to learn how to sell real estate, would you talk to a Realtor who's made millions or call the local Monopoly champion?

Silly questions, aren't they?  Well, when a business hires someone fresh out of college over someone with years of experience they're essentially putting the video game and Monopoly champs to work.

Unfortunately, most human resources departments filter resumes when they come in the door without even reading them.  Ones that don't have a degree listed go in the trash even if they're submitted by a proven professional with years of experience.  In this case, the degree doesn't mean a thing. It has no more function than an identification badge used to get by a security checkpoint. It's the little plastic card that opens the door to further consideration.

Big business has been slow to realize that the best choice for most jobs is not the person who took classes, but the person who has the hands-on experience in the field.  In business, they would rather hire someone who aced Marketing Theory than someone who has successfully sold hundreds of different products over a career.

In this environment, a life-experience degree does a tremendous amount to level the playing field. It gives tremendously qualified applicants that "access card" that will get the door opened. 

Getting a life-experience degree is NOT "cheating" or "taking the easy way out."  It is signifying the achievement attendant upon years of work.  It is allowing people who are, in the main, vastly more qualified than people given preferential treatment over them an entry into the "degreed" world. 

Of course, traditional universities aren't at all pleased with this concept.  If someone is able to pair a degree with years of experience, they will immediately shoot to the top of any heap of job applicants.  That's why they have pulled out all the stops to discredit life-experience degrees.  More and more, however, corporations are realizing that by not giving nontraditional degrees full credit, they are depriving themselves of eminently qualified, superior-quality employees.

So, would you hire the kid who got top grades in Business Theory, or would you hire the vice-president of a Fortune 500 company who pulled himself up with his own wit and determination and succeeded.

Simple choice, isn't it?