Design (and development) is a really funny field when it comes to eduction. I know more designers without degrees or formal training than any other white collar profession I can think of. You’re measured by the quality of your work much more than the name on your diploma. You even see job postings spell out:
Requirements:
Bachelors degree from 4 year University or,
Applicable work experience
Design reminds me a lot of old school professions. Most electricians don’t have a college degree, but that doesn’t mean they can’t do a great job wiring your house. Even further back, how many blacksmiths went to school? I’d bet the best had great apprenticeships and spent thousands and thousands of hours honing their craft.
There are a lot of designers out there stuck in a weird place. They have a career, a building portfolio, years of experience, and no degree. What advancement can they pursue through education?
In other professions, you can take some night courses, which are specifically designed for the working professional to achieve that next step. MBA classes are frequently held at night and during weekends. Masters programs at almost every university have a path which allows you to complete your studies outside the hours of 9 and 5.
What can a degree-less designer do?
I think you have only two options. One, take undergraduate courses at night and over the weekend for a long time until you get that degree. Two, find a good certification program at a local (or even online) school and aim for that.
Outside of that, just continue to pick up what got you here in the first place, your old pal, applicable work experience.
Somewhere here, there’s a real opportunity for a school to start a program for these in-betweeners, and if it was online and well known, it would absolutely flourish.
I'm a designer working in Washington DC to create beautiful and useful web experiences for an array of organizations and their users.
