Radio Talking Book

Working Strategies: No degree? How to use skills to get that job By Amy Lindgren
 05/03/2015 
 For career-changers, new graduates without job experience and any individual with limited resources, the pathway to good jobs can seem impossible to traverse. College has been frequently touted as the key to rewarding employment, but even that solution is coming under fire: It's been one of the more publicized disappointments of the recent recession that degrees don't protect against joblessness. So what does? In a word, skills. Skills are the building blocks of every job, and they're the currency of search, from both sides of the desk. The employer requests certain skills but will compromise the wish list to get the ones that matter. Meanwhile, the worker finds that skills are his or her main bargaining chip, more than specific training or education. Except for licensed positions, the academic credential is not the make-or-break criteria so many have come to believe. It's simply the most convenient way f