A piece by Jarrod Shanahan at Vice is timely:
I have two resumes. One of them states that I graduated from high school and learned how to drive a truck, work dispatch for deliveries, lead a work crew, and show up places on time. The other reveals that I am a published scholar with a Master’s Degree in philosophy summa cum laude from a prestigious New York institution you’ve probably heard of. Guess which one gets me called back?
Hint: Socrates isn’t hiring.
Pretty much everyone lies on their resume, or resumes, since you probably have a few different versions of your life depending on who’s asking. Most people innocently pad their qualifications with cute euphemisms and half-truths, turning “food runner” into “expedition specialist” or “assistant manager” into “team leader.” We fill gaps between jobs to avoid nosey questions or leave off past employers likely to give us a bad reference.
A bold few take it a step further and invent fictitious college degrees, as in the famous case of former M.I.T. Dean of Admissions Marilee Jones, who resigned in 2007 after 28 years of passing as a PhD despite not receiving any of the three degrees she claimed to have earned on her resume. And Ms. Jones, from one bullshitter to another: You had a good run. But in my case, I got the fancy degree, and I lie by leaving it off.
I’ve thought of leaving off my master’s degree, not only because I think it will increase the value of my resume in the minds of potential employers, but also because I’m interested in the topic from an academic standpoint.
I’m sure there are plenty of theories on whether or not an advanced degree looks good on a resume. There are probably some HR experts who believe that every single credential increases the value of the resume. But some do acknowledge that there is a such thing as too much of a “good” thing:
Many of today’s positions require candidates to have a bachelor’s or master’s degree. If you continued to pursue education to obtain other degrees, earning you the title of Ph.D., M.D. or others, don’t be so quick to include that information on your resume.
You have to ask if it is at all relevant to the job you are applying for. It’s great if you moved on to obtain your Ph.D. in neuroscience, but if the employer’s business and the job is focused on finance and accounting for toy manufacturing/distribution, your additional education will be of little relevance and may sway an employer to reconsider whether you are relevant for the position.
Another:
There are some experts who suggest that you should remove the highest level degree you have from your resume. By doing so, you’ll lower your chances of being ruled out before you have had a chance to interview.
And another testimony:
Seven months later, she’s still looking. There’s little to stretch her in her waitressing job at a local café: she had to remove her degree from her CV when she found jobs weren’t available because she was seen to be overqualified.
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In my field in technology I’ve developed a real bias against PhDs. Instead of just doing the job we are paying them to do, they seems to have that academic-track mindset of wanting to be recognized and rewarded for their intellectual curiosity and their interest in arcane or theoretical angles. Those things are all well & good, but they don’t help get a software release out the door. Give me a BA who can focus on the job at hand, any day.
I always found the notion of “overqualified” to be absurd. But then, that’s only if you take “more qualified” to mean “more intelligent.” All that really matters in any job is intelligence. I don’t care if I’m hiring someone to dig ditches or wash dishes: the more intelligent person will ultimately do it better, and very likely figure out a WAY to do it better in the process. The big exception here are jobs that require extreme aggressiveness, like working a boiler room at a brokerage. There, I’d prefer the arrogant asshole over the smart aspie. But otherwise, go with the smart kid.
Of course, we can’t give intelligence tests for hiring, so degrees become the proxy we use, and “degreed” doesn’t have to match “intelligent.” In any case, I would still prefer an “overqualified” young girl for a receptionist than some dummy. Though I suppose the downside is a sense of being “too good” for the job. But if you can glean from the interview that the person is sincere, then always always always go with the more intelligent person.
haha,
just imagine if Amanda Marcotte and the Tiger (Woods) Beatdown crew came to your restaurant. They’d give you a long lecture about how they are oppressed by all teh mens ™ and the white one’s go onto the top of the hierarchy. Then, they’d tease you and say, “Are you an actor? Being a waiter isn’t a real job. Got a Sugar Mama? Want a Sugar Mama? You didn’t do too good in school, now did’ya?”
To which you might reply, “Uh, Ms., I’ve got a Masters.”
Then they’d say “Make me a sammich, stud.”
…you could add your speshul sauce, and then piss in their coffee…
When I have applied for jobs as a line cook/chef, I haven’t bothered to tell the prospective employer about going to law school or spending several years as an environmental consultant. It’s simply not relevant.
When it becomes available, you should try to find the article in Feb 2013 Washingtonian Magazine. on Permaterns. “They’re educated, ambitious, and willing to work hard. But many of the young people who flock to Washington toil for years in low-paid internships before finally landing an entry-level job. Is this what success looks like in 2013? By Hannah Seligson”
Now people have to worry about how to explain multiple internships on their resume. Also, it seems that getting into Harvard is actually easier than getting an internship at places like Atlantic Magazine or the Heritage Foundation.
If you leave out education or irrelevant jobs on your resume, how do you explain that (several years) gap?
Internships show that we’ve figured out how to turn smart white people into temporary Mexicans.
If you show a significantly more responsible (or better-paid) job on your resume than the one you’re applying for, or more education credential than the job requires, the person hiring will assume that you won’t stick around once something you can get paid better for shows up.
If it’s McDonalds, with 600% annual turnover, he won’t care, because everyone else is going to quit in two months, too. But if the job benefits from continuity, you’re toast.
overqualified exists for sure. i have hired several people at my current job, and i definitely don’t want to hire someone who will leave in three months from boredom or frustration.
The entire first half of my working life is no longer on my resume, and I routinely leave off one of my degrees. I have also purged it of a few of my earliest jobs so as not to appear as old as I am. A few “tweaks” like this have made the difference between never getting callbacks and sometimes getting callbacks.
Don’t want me to lie, Mr. Manager? Then don’t age-discriminate against me before I even walk in the door. And don’t think I’m over-qualified because I’m not a moron. I can game the system too.
I have no qulaifications whatsoever.
Right, some HR departments, hiring managers, and organizations place a higher value on degrees, especially advanced degrees, no matter the major; just like the organization I know work for. That’s beneficial to me because of my two (relevant) Masters degrees. I have, however, left one or both Masters degrees off of my resume when applying for jobs in the past when I thought the degrees made me look over-qualified for the position.