Being Overqualified, Degrees disclosure?

An Associate degree is NOT a real college degree

Interesting!!!

< Please don't look below because I listed mine >

 

Rich,

Can you combine these two associates and better converted them in a Bachelors?

Sorry, I could not resist!

 

Wow, I will have to declare my Karate lessons and my correspondance certificate in guitar playing otherwise I would be taking the risk to loose my job for lack of honesty.

If you have a Doctorate in Religion or Humanities or any field that is not relevant in IT (Other than business or professional oriented degrees), no one is going to care or use it against you. Your personal interests in Religion won't hurt your chances to find an IT job.

You are not expected to disclose all your information in job interview, only the ones relevant to the job. Imagine the question:

Sir, have you cheated to your wife?

I have accumulated some much certificate junk through all these years, it would be ridiculous to say that I'm not honest because are not in my resume.

 

Dr. Levine makes an interesting point. I'd like to share a brief anecdote that addresses the issue. Some years ago, before I had even earned a graduate degree, I became vice president for a national non-profit corporation. One of the programs I supervised was a medical-case management program for HIV-infected parolees.

A gentleman applied for the position of "director" for said program. His qualifications? He earned an Ed.D. in clinical psychology from Harvard during the 1960s. He was a full professor at McGill University (Canada) and had just retired to the San Francisco Bay Area. Bored with retirement, and wanting to bring some medical perspective to his psychological dealings with HIV victims, he went back to school and earned a Bachelor's degree in nursing and acquired the state RN licenses.

His publications were numerous. His vitae was approximately 30 pages long. I hired him. It was the most fabulous experience. He was professional enough to understand our roles. But I learned from him each day. The CEO of the company, on the other hand, was disturbed by the man's popularity. He attempted to insult the man by analyzing any document the man wrote for typographical errors. Offended by this insecure CEO, the man left the company.

I would say, if an executive or manager cannot respect and appreciate my qualifications, then I wouldn't want to work for him or her anyway.

 

I've always heard that you should not list high school diplomas, but certainly list post secondary schools. I used to list my A.S. in Communications, but I've excluded it from recent resumes. Why is it considered inappropriate to list Associate degrees?

 

I don't have an associate's degree, but I don't see anything wrong with listing it on a resume. In fact, I would think that it could be a strong asset, especially if it is a way to indicate knowledge of a field other than the field of your bachelor's and higher degrees. The combination of expertise in Communications and Theology, for example, would be excellent for many jobs. When applying for community college teaching jobs, having an associate's degree could help demonstrate familiarity with the community college environment.

Alex

 

Hey..I bet you are popular with the ladies!

North
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Actually, 98% of my clients when I had an active practice were ladies. However, most were married, involved, or otherwise taken.

I no longer have an active practice, but my wife makes sure I keep in practice.

 

I would like to add a little more fuel to the fire re: putting degrees on one's resume.

I have been on both sides of the interviewing desk. I think it's important to remember what a resume's job is: It's your marketing collateral- pure and simple. It's job is to get you an interview- or at least put your name in front of someone's eyeballs. In today's market, the trick is to get your resume in front of the correct eyeballs.

This means that relevant information needs to be on the document. While it may be important to have a 30 page CV in the academic world (and CVs are still in vogue in some countries), it's important to have a crisply worded 1-2 page resume. A three page resume may be necessary for some people, but usually that's the limit. In 1-3 pages one cannot put everything on the resume. So, if an advanced degree is not going to add to your possibility of being chosen for an interview, then the value of listing it is dubious. In the case of an undergrad degree, one should mention it even if it isn't in the field one plans to pursue.

However, if you do NOT hold a valid degree, don't put it on there. If the truth is discovered during the interview- you'll be out. If it is discovered during a background check- you'll be dismissed.

Now, if asked directly in the interview if one holds an advanced degree, I believe one should not lie. If you have one, and you are asked, then admit to having one. If asked why it wasn't on the resume, mention that you felt it better to provide more job specific information than degrees. If not asked- don't mention it.

However, if asked on an application- make sure you list it. I don't think it will work against you. If you are working as a software engineer and your PhD is in Biology, you can state that the degree was not part of the job scope so you didn't feel it necessary to mention.

Of course, the above are my opinions. Actual mileage may vary.

 

Dear Adamo,

In my humble opinion, it is ethical to omit listing credentials on a resume as long as you are forthright about it. The easiest way to cover your bases is to change the section of your resume from "Degrees" or "Education" to "Relevant Education". The employer will then know that there may be other credentials not explicitly applicable to the job that are unlisted (and if they want, they can inquire about them).

I would echo many of the other comments already posted, and urge you to carefully weigh if this is an appropriate thing to do on a case-by-case basis.

Best of luck in your endeavors.
Tony Maranto

 

I couldn't agree more with that statement, particularly since many employment applications require the applicant to acknowledge that the information contained therein is complete and accurate. Omitting something like an advanced degree could be grounds for discharge (and "for cause" at that).

 

Do it!

Unless there is a very special reason for not listing all your earned qualifications then simply list them! It show that you have tenacity, motivation, the ability to move from ione discipline to another and so on. I was never a fan but Margaret Thatcher (former British PM) earned her first degree in chemistry at Oxford as a young woman and then, around age 40, retrained in law and became a barrister - and subsequently Prime Minister!

In one sense these credentials do not matter. It is estimated these days that the life of a degree is 7-10 years! Thereafter, the knowledge base on which we earn our awards has changed/advanced so much degrees are worthless! Yet, we still list them years and years and years.......and years on!

I was speaking to someone recently who is 98 years of age and he received his PhD from london University (chemistry) many, many moons ago as a young man aged 26. In those days few people went on to university unless you were from a very wealthy family. He still insists on being called 'Dr' even though his knowledge of chemistry is now so much out of date (as is his degree research/thesis) but he sees the years he put in to get his PhD all that time ago as still important.

'telfax'

 

One additionl (brief!) point!

I spent many years as a recruitment consultant. One of the things you have to remember is that if you are required to provide names, etc of referees and they (the referees) know of your prior learning/jobs, they may well make reference to it/them when writing a reference and/or if they are telephoned (which happens very often these days) by the potential employer/recruiter! I'd be suspicious if someone mentioned something to me, when taking up references, and I could not find mention of a particular thing in the resume/cv!

'telfax'