A doctoral degree truly pays off

I suspect we all know the reason.

 

Ugh.. posts like "Dr" Blake's make me cringe.

Back in late 99 and 00, I worked as a headhunter in the telecommunications industry. A wicked awesome job for a 20 year old who had not finished her degree--- One day, I had an interview with a candidate who had replied to a job posting. I was not overwhelmingly thrilled to speak to him because his resume was really mostly fluff, but his email was rather compelling so I proceeded with the phone interview.

While listening to the guy drone on and on, I noticed that his education stated a bachelors from some public school and an MBA from some school he said was in the UK. In fact, he said the city his degree came from was Road Town, UK. The name of the school Capitol University. Now granted, I have been to England multiple times, I love English history, I have friends who were born and raised in London-- and one thing I was fairly certain the city name of "Road Town" sounded very.. odd. The other thing I found odd was the MBA with a concentration in Telecommunications-- that seemed way off too (even for my not so ignorant 20 year old mind and experience).

So I was curious and looked it up. Not only was Capitol University some sketch out degree mill (where it is now "located" in another island) but you can still buy a Masters for a few hundred dollars. What was worse was that the whois lookup for the url for capitol university led to at the time the url www.degreemill.com. How embarrassing for this guy.

What kind of really got me is that I gave the opportunity to this guy to remove it from his resume. I pretty much felt some pity for him because I felt his earnestness was just misplaced and maybe he was just ignorant. I explained to him you should always be very sure of what you are putting on your resume as HR will do true background checks and check even your education in detail. The guy, bless his heart, said, "Oh they will love my background. It is not everyday that you get someone with a MBA specializing in Telecommunications as a major." Ugh cringe some more.

I figured I would work with him later to clarify for him he was had (or to find out if he knew he was trying to pass something off as real to me when it wasnt). Before, I called him back I checked one of his references-- he had proudly said he had done some work for the CEO of QVC. I called the guy-- who happened to be the CEO at the time. My candidate had given me the guy's home phone number. I was more humiliated for the candidate when the CEO finally figured out who the guy was and said something along the lines of oh yeah that is the guy my wife and I have taken tennis lessons from... ugh. *LOL* I never called the guy back-- I figured he did have some clue of his less than honesty on his resume.

So I will say what I should have said years ago, granted, "Dr" Blake-- if you really did ANY work for the BSU degree and the news of BSU's status is news to you, I feel compassion for you that you have been had.

However, your posts from the past seem to point out that you had some understanding of what BSU really was -- or you would have never felt embarrassment of completing a degree at this institution.

I am also assuming your company is probably small (i.e. I would think NOT a nationwide enterprise) because I have never worked for ANY company who does not require accreditation for an employee's tuition reimbursement. There are reasons for this tax, reputation, etc.

Quite frankly, it may feel good to be called Dr, but being called Dr when you know you have not met the qualifications for being a Dr points to some serious esteem or ego issues. If your company is a larger more established company who could be thrown into the spotlight should your name come up with this fake doctorate, you will wish you had never delighted in being called Dr. when everyone who can read finds out about the sham of a university where you gained the doctorate.

There is a reason why a doctorate in this country does not cost simply 3k-- even if your employer only provides up to 3k in reimbursement is not enough of a reason to drop out of an accredited program for essentially a degree mill. Student loans, savings, Lifelong learning credit, etc could all help to soften the blow of a more expensive program which would surely be an investment into your future.

 

OUCH! I must state again that I informed my employer of the lack of accreditation and was encouraged to complete the remainder of my program at BSU which leaves me to say, my company has received "just what the Dr. ordered" and I gained a substantial compensation boost.

 

All I just want to say after all these.....GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR DEGREE, however you're not in my Doctoral List.

 

And......I think this thread has about run its useful course.