I was wondering about something. You see, I've been in college since the start of the 07 academic year at HCC, and since then I've been having to deal with a lot of...well things I don't like, and by that I mean things that don't prepare me to do well in classes. These things can be instructors who make it hard to get good grades (like I am having now, but it was different in my previous semester), study guides that aim to be vague and not actually telling you what you need to study, and things of that nature.

I really don't know how much longer this will last during my journey to a bachelor's degree (doubt I'm going to do any more studying after that) so, I read that a lot of job descriptions say you need a bachelor's degree "or equivalent experience". The purpose of this topic is to find out what this "equivalent experience" means.

I can already tell it's talking about relevant work experience, but here's the thing. How much work experience is equal to, say, 3 college credits? Are the units of work experience the number of hours you worked (which is like the most accurate way to measure it)? Also, let's say you're applying for a job in IT, like "Systems Analyst" that doesn't require any certifications, just a 4-year degree in IT, or "equivalent experience" like I said. This is obviously experience in the field, but can it be experience in ANY job within the field? Like what if I was a QA Tester, or Help Desk employee (but still in the IT category) for 4 years. Can this be considered as part of the "equivalent experience", or by that do they mean experience in the SAME position you're applying for (which would be kind of weird if you think about it...because how did you get experience in that position before when it said it needed a degree in the first place)?

Thanks and sorry if this is too much to ask...I've been doing research on this matter for quite a while, but didn't get any answers clear to me.

I'm also guessing that the usual case with jobs in the IT field, is that they (employers) will request that you either have a degree, some college w/ work experience in the field, or a heck of a lot of work experience. I'm an IS major with a General Studies associate's degree so far, and I'm just asking these questions because I don't know what the future holds for me. Succeeding in some classes from this point forward kind of seems like a case of Russian Roulette (even when I'm trying the best I can, despite that this vagueness only helps to lessen the motivation), and I have to succeed in all of them for the degree. You also aren't allowed more than 3 attempts for each class, and in some cases not more than 2, even despite that the college gets payed a grand for each attempt in a class you make; then there's the fact a "D", which in the college world is considered to be "passing", is actually not at UMBC...wtf? They weren't kidding about being an "honors university". Even the IS curriculum at College Park is easier. 

Something like work experience you have very little chances of failing in. Everything you must do is explicitly outlined and there's no confusion involved, unlike in school sometimes. It's things like this that make me wonder often how did so-and-so get a degree. Were they just that lucky? Did they get great professors each and every time? By the way, I use RateMyProfessors before enrolling in a class beforehand, but even that doesn't guarantee you success, since sometimes there isn't a "good" professor teaching the subject you need for the degree you're trying to get, or they may be bias in the reviews.

Thanks all for your help.