I wholeheartadle agree with dragonchild on:

Does the fact I have a degree help me get a job?

Not only does the fact that I have a degree help me to get a job in the first place, but it also gets me a much higher income.

However, I can't say that I agree with:

Does what I learned when I "earned" my CS/Math degree help me do my current (or any) job?

I think this is somewhat subjective and I'll tell you why. If all I wanted to do was be a code-monkey (nothing against simply writing code), I could have left school after my first year. However, I really wanted to learn to design large software systems in addition and that is just what I did for the next few years of college. So, in my case, college was very useful for me. Granted, I didn't learn the details about what I'd be doing in my future job, but I did learn enough theory and developed the means to apply that theory to help me in my current job.

Just as dragonchild mentioned, I went from a job where I made $7.30/hr and now, without a great amount of change in the work that I'm doing, I make $25/hr.

If you really need to get away from where you are now, I think you can probably get a job doing programming or at least within the IT industry, but be prepared to be underpaid. Without a degree or some sort of certification, you're just not going to make as much money as you'd probably like to. But to this, I want you to ask yourself a question: If I have two employees, both apt individuals, and one has a degree in what I ask him/her to do and one does not, who do I pay more money? How would you answer that question?

Best of luck to you in whatever you decide.

- Sherlock

Skepticism is the source of knowledge as much as knowledge is the source of skepticism.

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