Skipping College as the Path to Success in the High-Tech Industry
By Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson
Struck by all the hoopla about the irrelevance of college education to success in our new world of technology, we decided to ask two talented research assistants from the Spencer Foundation, Charles Kurose and Amato Nocera, to look into the matter. Here, in their own words, is what they found.
In a recent New York Times op-ed piece, “Will Dropouts Save America?”, Michael Ellsberg gives an increasingly popular argument against a college education. The argument runs something like this: wildly successful entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs dropped out of college. They didn’t need a college degree or the kind of skills that are learned from textbooks or in the classroom: passion, creativity, and a revolutionary idea fueled their success and gave the world two of its greatest tech companies: Microsoft and Apple.
Although the anecdote about Gates and Jobs is true, the conclusion that follows seems rather strange: just like Bill and Steve, you—the average American—needn’t waste your time and money on college in search of professional success. Ellsberg suggests that beyond “classic” professions like doctor, lawyer, and engineer “the focus on higher education as the only path to stable employment is profoundly misguided.” It’s worth considering just how misguided this focus actually is by examining an industry that is dominated by a profession that could hardly be called classic in this sense—the tech industry.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), out of the 1,811,000 jobs held by persons aged 25 years and over and who are employed in “computer systems design and related services” (an industry that includes computer and information systems design as well as software development) only about 7 percent have only a high-school degree. Of course, one’s odds of breaking into the industry improve slightly if you’ve obtained an associate’s degree (8 percent of persons employed) or attended some college and did not finish (12 percent of persons employed). But, rather unsurprisingly, the vast majority of employees in this industry have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher (73 percent). As the BLS notes, “the education level of workers in this industry is higher than average.”
But what about those of us who want to be one of the movers and shakers in this industry? The anecdote given by Ellsberg implies not only that college is a waste of time if you’re seeking professional success in the tech industry, but that college is especially a waste of time if you’re seeking to push technology forward as one of the stewards of this industry. As it turns out, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
A quick glance at the biographies of executive employees at Microsoft and Apple reveals a central problem with such a claim. Microsoft’s Web page lists 124 executives, and educational information is available on 120. Since Gates is no longer employed at Microsoft, only one executive listed at this tech giant fits the college-dropout motif, while the other 119 went through the far less flashy route of earning at least a bachelor’s degree. Indeed, the majority of Microsoft’s executives (58 percent) have earned degrees higher than a B.A. And at Apple, with the passing of Steve Jobs, 100 percent of its leaders have earned at least a B.A., and the majority (56 percent) have earned an advanced degree. If you’re looking to get yourself a senior position in the tech industry, where you are in the best position to innovate and develop new technology, it may be a good idea to get at least a B.A.
The stories of wildly successful college dropouts are fascinating and play to some of our deepest fantasies. If you happen to be an actual genius with a truly revolutionary idea, and if fate smiles on you, then maybe you should drop out of college. But chances are you’re not that person. In any case, the numbers tell us one thing: you wouldn’t be misguided at all to think that getting a college degree is the wisest pathway to a successful professional career, whether that be in one of Ellsberg’s “classic” professions or elsewhere. Indeed, you may be misguided to think otherwise.