How important is industry experience?

Anyone who is actively working in this industry knows that gaining the experience from others is very important, more so than just having an education in culinary. With the complexity of the dishes and the way that restaurants are run it is virtually impossible to be productive in a food service kitchen without knowing some of the ins and outs. There are many different ways for you to get this experience for me personally I worked with the US Coast Guard for a little while, I currently am on call for the Home Shopping Network for their production kitchen, I teach the skills that have been taught to me to middle and high school age students, and I am a personal chef for hire. I have catered many weddings from 50-300 people both single handed and with a small team. Getting the experience like this is not something you get from a 4 year degree...you need to be out in the field.