Is too many degrees a bad thing?

There is a friend of mine who has numerous undergraduate degrees and one of her friends said that it doesn't look good to employers when you mention or reveal that you have accumulated many degrees.

I told her that I thought it was impressive that she has many degrees and that she constantly wants to learn new things. She winds up taking a few classes and then decides since she has so many credits why not get a degree if she can? I told her I don't think that it is a bad thing whatsoever.

I know that there have been a lot of people on this forum who have got numerous undergraduate or graduate degrees. What is your opinion on what her friend said to her about having too many college degrees? Does this pose in your opinion as a bad thing to employers?

The other thing that she wanted to know is it best to just list those degrees that correspond with what you are intending to go for in a job or should you list all of your college degrees? In other words, how have some of you on here who have numerous undergraduate or graduate degrees and list them on your resume has this caused any problems with you being considered for jobs, etc?

In my opinion, I think many people do get numerous degrees for personal enrichment and because they want to learn something more. What harm does it do to want to learn more and become more well-rounded?

 

I think you should tailor your resume to the job you are applying for. If you have an MBA and a MA in Chemistry and you are applying to several jobs not related to chemistry or science, I might leave the MA off.

The only question that I'd have about someone with lots of undergrad degrees is why they never bothered to start working on a graduate degree. There is nothing wrong with earning degrees for your own benefit but when it comes time for a job, you better be able to spin it in a positive way as opposed to looking like a lost person without focus that is all over the place.

 

She does have a graduate degree. She also has numerous undergraduate degrees as well which she has earned some undergraduates after her graduate degree.

Much of it has to do with the fact that she just likes to constantly learn and instead of just getting a few credits she decided to get a degree from them. Her idea was that if you are taking a whole bunch of college courses for credit if possible why not get a degree from them?

The purpose of getting the additional degrees was more for personal enrichment. While some were earned to make her more well-rounded most of it was for personal exploration and development.

 

Ah, OK. The rest of my post still stands, however. As an employer I'd want to know that your friend isn't someone that has so many interests and always has to be learning new things in a formal manner that a job isn't going to become boring and they'll quit and want a new challenge in six months.

I'd tell her to keep earning degrees but to tweak the resume and list what is appropriate for the job being applied for.

 

I agree with you about listing only those that would be required for a position that she is applying for. The problem that arises is how do you explain getting an undergraduate degree after you have earned a graduate degree?

I suppose you could say so that it would tie more into what you are applying for, but that has to raise some red flags when it comes to an employer. I guess the thing is that would help her is to know if others on this forum have experienced the same thing and how they overcame it and why they did the same path that she did, etc?

I am simply trying to help her and get some other points of view on the matter.

 

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In my world, if you are paying cash, have an emergency fund sitting in the bank, and are not changing careers every 4 years, neglecting your children or spouse, and can still find time to clean the bathroom- then it's great. So, as you can see, the answer is totally framed by your own view of what's appropriate- not some truth of right or wrong.

 

That's not really that big of a deal. For example, say I finish a graduate degree in Geology but then I find that I need more of a formal education in Chemistry or Mechanical Engineering or whatever to fill in some knowledge gaps. It's probably a stretch to think that I could finish a MA in Chemistry or ME with no undergrad training. In that situation, I'd go back and finish 30+ more undergrad credits to get those skills. I couldn't teach college with them but that wouldn't be the goal anyways.

Check out this guys educational background. He was the NASA Administrator a while back.

Michael Griffin

Griffin received a bachelor's degree in physics from Johns Hopkins University; a master's degree in aerospace science from Catholic University of America; a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland; a master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California; a master's degree in applied physics from Johns Hopkins University; a master's degree in business administration from Loyola College; and a master's degree in Civil Engineering from George Washington University.

 

In my mind, a resume exists solely for the purpose of obtaining employment and can be crafted in any number of ways toward that end. Leaving off a (few) degree(s) is one of them. However, every job I've ever held required me to fill out a specific employment application that typically asks for ALL of your degrees and then asks you to sign it below the statement that says "blah, bla, blah, everything is true blah, blah, blah." So be careful.

I think the real answer here is "It depends." It depends on the person who's doing the hiring. I've had bosses who wanted their people to be dedicated Engineers who were focused on their areas of specialization and closely related technical subjects. Projects and other responsibilities are handed out along these lines. An Engineer who's learning extra computer languages is going to get different projects (most of the time) than an Engineer who's working toward an MBA. An Engineer who's earning multiple Bachelors degrees "just because it's fun" would be seen as being less than dedicated to their career.

Is that fair? Of course it's not. Is it universal? Of course it's not. Some hiring managers might love to find a well rounded employee who has found a way to keep learning a fun thing. If I take a course in Mathematics then I typically find a way to let people know. If I take a course in Creative Writing then I usually keep it to myself. But that's just my situation and may not apply to others. That's why I said, "It depends."

 

I agree with Kizmet on the resume being only used to gain employment. Its not a portfolio. For the most part people are asked to take the personal information from their resume and only put on those things relevant to the position applying for.

While it may be a big part of your personality to spend weekends re-enacting civil war battles, it does not need to be on your resume. Same goes for listing multiple degrees not related to the type employment being pursued.

 

Has she been working full-time while earning the additional degrees? If so, then I don't really foresee it being a problem, but would still only list the relevant degrees to the position.

If she has been going to school full-time on and off to earn the degrees then leaving them off the resume becomes an issue of having numerous gaps of time missing from the resume.

If she has relevant experience to the position she is applying for I don't really think the multiple degrees will be off putting. Let's face it, there are far worse ways to spend your personal time than educating yourself.

 

That's easy... Simply leave off the years of graduation for each degree. There is nothing in the "resume handbook" which states that one must include the year of graduation next to a degree. I would recommend that your friend list her degrees from top down (e.g. Masters first, follow by her bachelors degrees). If asked, be honest of course. But, chances are it will never come up. Also, this has a side effect, of potential employers not being able to perform some quick mental math as to how old a person might be (of course, as we know, this is often inaccurate anyway, since there are many adult students out there, who are much older than 22 when they graduate from college).

 

At some point too much education probably keeps you from putting your energy to other things. Most coursework is so time consuming that it takes all of your free time, thereby making you less well rounded. You can always just read a book to learn. All work and no play...

 

Too many degrees is a good thing if you want to appear in one of those degreeinfo threads titled "Man Has Twenty-Odd Degrees!"

 

This is probably the most succinct and useful post in reply to the OP thus far. I'd also point out that real learning comes from taking what you've studied and applying it in the field. At most school learning is preparatory in nature and if you don't use it, you eventually lose it.

There is a declining return on education once you're past your first Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate and only so much explaining you can do that covers having multiples. Two examples of things I've heard that make sense are:

1. I went to school for X, but the field wasn't paying enough and I went into Y. Therefore I educated myself in Y.

2. I started my career in X, moved up into management and educated myself as Y.. then started teaching after so many years and did Z.

There needs to be a logic that people can follow when you start explaining yourself to anyone looking to fill a position. I've also heard one other example that worked for one of my HR departments.

3. My companies have always had tuition reimbursement and I believe in taking advantage of benefits that improve my value to the firm. After being at my last firm for a decade or two, credits add up and in order to be responsible you need to apply them to things that can be helpful in the workplace. If I had only been with the company for a short period of time you'd see one or maybe two degrees tops, and you'll note that the first degrees directly map to exactly what I was doing.

But there comes a time when you've been some place for a good period of time, and if you keep taking advantage of the benefit you start looking for things that are nice to haves that still fill some need within your job that isn't directly in the job description. The next few degrees, are examples of tangential fits.

This worked for a guy that had an IT gig and moved into management with an undergrad in IT and a masters in management.. the next few were psychology, computer science and an LLB.

So it really depends on how scattered the interests are and how focused the person has been in other areas of his or her life.

Best,
ITJD

 

Here's another one. As an interpreter, I am required to engage in continuing education. I realized it would be MUCH less expensive to take online classes with Clovis Community College than to go to a trillion workshops. Once I'm done with my bachelor's, I will likely take classes with them to fulfill these cont. ed. requirements, picking up a few AA degrees in the process (they have no limit on how many you can receive from them- that is, unless you get one in each program they have and run out of classes to take ).

Anyway, I post this because I am sure that this situation applies to others. A good reason to have more degrees would be that your previous employment either required, prefered or encouraged continuing education.

 

Minor point but shouldn't the question be posed as"

ARE too many degrees a bad thing?

I read too many student papers making such mistakes, sorry for being picky!

 

Bush: Is our children learning?
Obama: Yes, in all 57 states.

 

It may not be pretty to the ears, but given some consideration, it may not technically be incorrect.

is- singular third person conjugation of "to be"

are- plural third person conjugation of to be

Since the subject is an informal noun, we know it is in the third person. We simply must determine whether the subject is singular or plural.

Is too many degrees a bad thing?

"Degrees" is a plural noun. If "degrees" is the subject, then the above sentence is gramatically incorrect. However:

Is too many degrees a bad thing?

This, paradoxically, is actually a singular noun. The situation of having too many degrees is actually one situation. Written this way, the sentence does not imply that the degrees are bad (as "are...degrees" would), rather that the situation of having of too many degrees IS bad.

If you are not convinced, we can turn the question into a statement. How does this sound:

Too many degrees is bad.

Not gramatically incorrect. Compare with:

Too many degrees are bad.

Gramatically incorrect, unlike the original poster.

 

WOW - Impressive!

 

[austin_powers_voice]nerd alert![/austin_powers_voice]