Except those jobs aren't the sort that are simply better. They're conflating the good tech jobs for which a degree is helpful, with the shit tech jobs which do not need a degree. That false presumption turns the thrust of their argument from "you don't need a degree to get a tech job" to "you don't need a degree to get a shitty tech job". Which doesn't quite have the same inspiring message.
Well... that kinda makes it seem like you're just on an ego trip to justify your own career choices. I would say more to the point: there are lots of career paths where, regardless of education, you tend to start at the bottom and work your way up. Often, a formal education is not necessary for those jobs. Sometimes, the people hiring choose to require an education (for various reasons, some valid, some not). This is true whether or not the job is a "tech job".
The starting jobs for doctors and lawyers often suck too, and those are highly educated positions. Lots of times, you just have to start with a shitty job.
Well maybe for you, but I graduated with a computer engineering degree and my first job out of school was developing software for embedded systems.
Yeah, well that doesn't sound fun to me. It may have been lucrative, but to each his own. Again, I'm not sure what your point here is, other than a misguided desire to brag.
Everyone I've known with the job has been desperate to get out, move up into managing others, or more commonly move "sideways" into development or sysadmin work.
Yet again, I'm not sure what your point is there. Many of the shitty jobs you start out with, people are looking to somehow "get out" or "move up". Doctors don't usually want to stay in their internships. Lawyers don't like doing the grunt work that young lawyers do. People starting in IT support don't like to stay at tier 1 helpdesk. That's all pretty normal. So what you're saying is IT support is an inferior career to programming embedded systems because people like to get promoted? Moving into management, systems administration, project management, network architecture, etc. are all routes upward. They're not really "sideways" or anything else. The path into those jobs are generally through tier 1 helpdesk. There isn't a level of formal education sufficient to have me hire someone directly into a sysadmin position, let alone something higher, without experience.
Let's look at all the directors and CIO and techy business owners. Obviously since they're "at the top" there's going to be less of them then the workers. That's how heirarchies work. So the odds of getting there are slim already...Now take your typical help-desk worker. Are you going to tell them that if they stay in this job they'll eventually get to be the director?
Yet again, I'm not sure what point you're trying to illustrate here. Yes, businesses run as hierarchies. The odds of reaching the top in any field are not great, and not everyone will accomplish that. Not every lawyer makes partner in a prestigious firm. Not every programmer gets to be CEO of a successful software company. Not every musician gets to become world-famous millionaire rockstars who sell out huge stadiums. What is the conclusion that you think we should draw from that? Because it's sounding more and more like you're just on a deranged ego trip to prove that you're better than helpdesk techs.
A comSci PhD can be overqualified AND not have the skills for the job. "Qualifications" it's a word that means something.
You do know that "overqualified" actually has a meaning, right? When someone is "overqualified", it means that they can easily do the job but have qualifications beyond that which make them unsuited for such a low-level position. For example, hiring someone to do tier-1 helpdesk who has been doing IT support for 6 years, and has since moved through tier-2, tier-3, and project management roles-- that would be an example of hiring someone who is "overqualified". Hiring a compsci PhD to do tier-1 support is something other than that. Absent other qualifications, he probably isn't qualified for a higher job. He probably can't easily do the tier-1 job without learning a lot.
For example, you're a programmer. If you were hiring a programmer, and a guy comes in and he has a PhD in Comparative Literature but has never programmed anything--- would you say that he's "overqualified" to be a programmer? Not unless you misunderstand the meaning of the word "overqualified".
Now I've hired 21-year old kids who have CompSci degrees from a reputable university (and had certs to boot!), and they may be fine programmers and have some understanding of theoretical computer concepts, but starting off they couldn't fix computers worth a damn. Meanwhile I've hired kids who didn't finish college but have been fixing computers for years as a side-job, and they were pretty solid right away. I also once helped train a kid, for example, who was a compsci major who had been running his own support business on the side for a few years. That guy was smart. Still, there's a lot of work that I wouldn't have him do until he had more experience, just because people without much experience tend to make a lot of mistakes.
I guess it's just some kind of a weird blow to your ego to think that IT support people aren't all losers, and I don't really see why. I'm guessing you're very self-conscious about something weird, and IT support is a touchy subject for you.