Would you hire someone with a degree from a mill?

I am in agreement with most everyone else. Without a doubt, I would refuse to hire a graduate of a degree mill or substandard school. In fact, I would hire someone without a degree before I would hire a someone with a degree from a mill. Also, if I discovered an employee has a degree from a mill, I would fire him/her on the spot whether or not they are a good employee.
It is all about ethics and trust. If a prospective employee willingly misrepresents themself about a college degree, what else will he or she misrepresent about?

 

No!

(....There! That was one easy question with a short answer). LOL.

Want an explanation? Ok, here goes (my me-too-isms). LOL.

Agreed!

Agreed!

Agreed!

Agreed!

Agreed!

Agreed!

Agreed!

Agreed! (again and again).


Jake's concluding remarks on this vexing issue:

I may even -

(i) put the resume in the trash can, at the interview, with the fake degree holder present (and watching!). LOL.

(ii) call the Police! (relax, if you own one such fake degree or are a mill shill........ that was a joke!)



Thanks.

 

No, no, no, no, no.

And furthermore . . .

NO.



marilynd

 

I supposed I am not shocked by the fact that there were a few "Yes" votes. Every edifice has a few loose screws.

I am more dismayed by the percentage of "Maybe" votes. The three potential qualifiers given were:

1. ". . . had a good explanation . . . "

There is, in my view, no "good explanation" that justifies deceit, and an attempt to deceive is justification ipso facto for filing the application in the big round thing.

2. ". . . did not understand that it was a mill."

Unless you're hiring for labor in the salt mines--or other mindless, backbreaking labour--you want to hire someone with a certain amount of cerebral acuity, someone who is aware of the here and now. Anyone who, in this day and age, believes that you can purchase education or training in the same way you purchase a loaf of bread fails either the deceit test or the massive ignorance test. In either case, they fail the employability test.

Further, to employ someone who was one of the very few legitimately ignorant of the educational system only reinforces attempts to use fraudulent credentials to obtain legitimate ends. Gently explain to the person to go away and obtain legitimate credentials and then return with employment application in hand.

3. "If they otherwise had the proper credentials."

Proper credentials are no defense against bad character or horrendous judgment.

Permissiveness is a relative virtue, not an absolute virtue.

Several posters to this thread have qualified their responses. All well and good. But the response to the proposition as stated, it seems crystal clear to me, can only be "No."

marilynd

 

I found the same thing with my BS - beforehand I thought I knew quite a bit, but didn't know the boundaries of my knowledge.

Now, I find that I know the boundaries of my knowledge (and know a little more than before).

I'm now pursuing a MBA to fill in the gaps that I now am aware of.

Maybe ignorance would have been easier

As for the topic if hiring a mill graduate, I voted "no". I concur with others' opinions - either they're unethical or unintelligent. Given the options today to get a bachelor's legitimately, there's no reason why someone who can spend $500 on a bogus degree can't use that as the starting point to accumulate college credit.

Cheers,
Mark

 

Sure, if I was a Ponzi scheme operator.

By the way, Randell1234, how did you get your number of posts to equal your handle number? I'm still working on it.

Bill

 

Am I understanding certain individuals on this thread to say that if they were going to get a PhD in Non-Traditional Education, they would refuse to hire a prospective committee member who had bought their Harvard Doctor of Neuro-Surgery and their Harvard Doctor of Jurisprudence and their College of Nonsense Doctor of Politics ... even if that individual had a legitimately earned prestigious Big Ten PhD, had written so far eight DL books (one of which has gone through sixteen editions in thirty-one years) and been involved with the management of at least four DL schools?

 

You do realise he cannot answer that question, not without invalidating it at least (unless name changes are possible).

 

That's a lot to expect from someone who can't even spell "$3."

Bill

 

None of which were diploma mills. And "involved with the management of...." is rather vague. IIAS and Greenwich were the same effort. Fairfax for 4 months at the outset. Columbia Pacific? Not in management that I'm aware of.

As for the "degrees" you mention, those aren't degrees. They're diplomas, fake ones, and not used as degrees. That puts them outside the scope of this thread.

If I understand your point, these situations can get complicated. But it was a simple question, and with reasonable assumptions it can be covered with a simple answer: No.

 

Calm down, Rich. I'm not slamming John or you. As a matter of fact I consider the two of you to be quite reputable authorities in the DL field. I never insinuated that Greenwich or the British schools John marketed or any of his other schools were "mills." Also, I'm aware that John's three other "doctoral degrees" were purchased as jokes to illustrate how easy it is to get one, and that he does have a quite legitimate (and prestigious) PhD from Michigan State University (1966). Just pointing out that there are, of course, exceptions to every rule. Please don't mistake me for one of those shills that likes to attack you and Union and John and Greenwich.

 

That was a short one

 

Looks like you (briefly) succeeded.
Are you going to create a new account called 5$bill now?

 

Never crossed my mind. Yours are valuable, honest, on-topic, reasoned, and pleasant posts. No offense taken here....

 

Since the person in question purchased those degrees as part of the research done for some of the eight books, I would not consider that as a negative in my hypothetical hiring situation. Given the fact that he lists Michigan State as his only earned doctorate and does not mention having earned Harvard degrees in any of his publications, his web page or postings on public web sites, I am led to believe that he has not attempted to mislead anyone as to the nature of the diplomas that he purchased.

Of course, he is still missing the ever valuable and prestigious Universal Life doctorate

Tony Piña, Ed.D.
Administrator, Northeastern Illinois University