Chances are you’ve come across an ad (or two) for a job that requires a bachelor’s degree, even if the responsibilities don’t align with that type of education. This is because employers usually set standards around credentials. “Jobs don’t require four-year degrees,” summarized Harvard Business School in a recent report. “Employers work.”
Part of that preference has to do with the fact that companies with an educated workforce tend to have higher productivity rates, according to the Economic Policy Institute. But when the average job posting gets about 118 applicants, a degree can also be a way to narrow down the pool of applicants. It becomes a kind of shorthand. Manjari Raman, director of Harvard Business School’s Managing the Future of Work program, told the BBC that “many companies [have taken] the easy path of using a four-year college degree as a substitute” for a specific ability or skill set.
However, we started to see things change. Chalk it up to the growth of data-driven business models or the exciting possibilities of artificial intelligence, but what companies need from their workforce is changing — and they often can’t find the skilled employees they need most. In fact, the World Economic Forum has estimated that retraining and upskilling will be key to ensuring workers have key skills. And we’re not just talking about technical skills. Workplace skills, such as analytical thinking, are still incredibly important.
To address that problem, more employers have decided to drop the bachelor’s degree requirements, according to The Burning Glass Institute, which brings us to a very important question.
When you want to start a career or turn to a new one, which is the best option: a professional certificate or a diploma?
Let’s make one thing clear: you can’t go wrong either way. Ultimately, the answer depends on your short- and long-term career goals.
The key is to understand what you want now and what you will want later. There is an education that will meet you where you are. You can find short-term programs, such as professional certificates, to help you gain skills quickly. But if you eventually want to advance in your career, what will you need for that? Zooming out and looking a few years ahead can be a great thought experiment to help you make your choice.
This is where some light research can be of great help. Once you have an idea of your immediate and possible career goals, take the time to browse job postings for job titles associated with each level: entry, associate, mid-level, and senior. What are the education and credential requirements? If you can, dig a little deeper: try to find people who have advanced in the same career and look at their educational path through their LinkedIn profile. If possible, look for informational interviews. Usually they help you understand the role, but you can also ask about the person’s educational background to understand if it makes sense for you.
Professional certificates versus diplomas
Once you have a better idea of the total credentials you’ll need, think about what you need right now and what you might need eventually. Compared to degrees, professional certificates don’t take long to complete, often cost much less, and emphasize the development of technical skills above all else. In fact, they are mostly designed to help you fill specific roles in months, not years.
When you’re just starting out, a professional certification can be a great way to develop the key skills to do the work you’re most interested in. Or when you have already earned a bachelor’s degree and realized that your heart lies in a different type of work, a professional certificate can be a great opportunity to retrain in a faster way than obtaining a master’s degree.
Both bachelor’s and master’s degrees take longer to earn compared to professional certifications and are also significantly more expensive. Still, degrees can pay off. They deepen your subject knowledge, add to your skill set, and are often designed to develop well-rounded graduates who are able to think critically and creatively about the world around them—skills that rank among the most important for workers, according to the World Economic Forum.
There is also plenty of evidence that any type of degree raises wages and lowers the risk of unemployment compared to a high school diploma. What’s more, while entry-level roles may reduce bachelor’s degree requirements, you may eventually need a degree to advance in your career.
Now that we’ve covered some of the fundamental differences between professional certifications and degrees, where is the best starting point for you?
The answer might lie initially with a short-term program, such as a vocational certificate, to build the skills you need now, before eventually returning to a longer-term program, such as a degree, when you have the time and want to keep furthering your education. You’ll find both options on Coursera.
“Professional certificates are perfect for breaking into a new field. Quickly learn job-relevant skills from the best in the industry and gain a meaningful credential that helps one in four candidates land a new job,” says Marni Baker Stein, Coursera Content Manager. “While professional certifications are great for getting a job, a degree is often what opens up opportunities for advancement. Before you take the plunge and apply: see if you can get college credit for that prior learning and take an open class to see exactly what the experience is like.”
There are also a growing number of performance-based online master’s degrees on Coursera, which offer admission based on your ability to pass three major courses in a relevant subject. This can be a great option if you have significant experience or training in a technology-intensive field. “To be accepted into the program in this way is really innovative,” said Atahan Ünal, a student at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Deciding what kind of education you should pursue is a matter of weighing your short-term goals against your long-term goals. We are in a moment where education meets you where you are, rather than asking you to fit into a predetermined mold. Regardless of which direction you ultimately go, education of any kind carries weight. So where are you going next?
More resources
Start moving your career with Professional certificate. Learn from industry leaders like Google, Microsoft, and IBM to prepare for your career in data analytics, cybersecurity, web development, marketing, and more.
Learn more about affordable degrees on Coursera. Learn from world-class faculty and earn a degree for less than $20,000—all completely online, no login required.
Investigate open graduate courses in business, data science, and computer science to see if an online degree is right for you and hear from more students who are currently graduating Stanislav Liashkov, Seung Geon Kim, Kaushik Muthyalu and Hubert Abiera.