Change, Advance, or Launch a Career – What's Your Reason?

An online university is a great fit for many working adults who need or want to continue their education by earning a degree – sometimes to advance in the field they are already working in, and sometimes to change careers or launch a new one.

A recent Twitter-based poll suggests that, among WGU students, the former is more common than the latter.

According to the poll, nearly three-fourths of respondents – 73 percent – were actively employed in their field of study at the same time they were earning their degree online. Whether they were in a bachelor’s degree program or seeking their master’s, these students wanted to advance within the careers they were already working in and knew a degree would help them get there.

“My degree is in Business Management and I already own my own business. Icing on the cake, I suppose,” one WGU Facebook fan said of her bachelor’s degree in Business.

The remaining 27 percent were split fairly evenly between students looking to launch their first career or change from a current career to a new one. One online IT degree seeker on Facebook told us he was a firefighter for whom IT started as a hobby but has now become a moneymaker.

And, of course, many students have their own reasons for earning their degree online from WGU beyond career advancement. As one Facebook fan asked, “Where is the ‘Yes, it’s something I wanted to do for myself’ option?”