Chapter 20

What Education Do You Have?

In This Chapter

Selling educational skills and value in your job interview

Capitalizing on boomers’ updated workplace education

Maximizing the educational punch of new college graduates

Interviewers glean more from your answers about education and training than just the facts. What you say reveals your decision-making processes, your values, your ability to keep up with the times, and your willingness to adapt to a technology-driven global economy.

In addition to dealing with touchy issues that job seekers of any age or experience level may encounter — like not having a degree or other required educational credential — this chapter focuses on inquiries often directed at two specific groups:

Boomers, a young-at-heart generation toting around a few extra years of experience. (See Chapter 13 for interviewing tips for people over 50.)

Millennials (those born after 1980), fresh faces on the work scene and typically recent college gradates. (See Chapter 15 for interviewing tips for new college graduates.)

Right Degree, Wrong Degree, No Degree? Making the Best with What You Have

What can you do when all the jobs you want seem to require a college degree and you don’t have one? Or you have an undergraduate degree, and the job requires a graduate degree? Or you have the “wrong” degree?

Your moves depend on whether you want to make a play for the degree-requiring job without additional education or make a commitment to higher learning.

Talking around an education obstacle

If you must address your lack of required education, discuss your experience and skills as education. Speak of experience-based knowledge and skills, for instance, and redirect the conversation to your self-teaching efforts.

Assure the interviewer that your degree-less state does not affect your ability to do the job well. Use specific examples from your experience to prove this point.

Admittedly, selling experience as education won’t change anyone’s mind when the education requirement is rigid — as it is in health fields, for example. But the strategy may keep your candidacy afloat when an educational requirement is simply a convenient screening device, as it often is.

You also have the choice of three more strategies that don’t require returning to school:

Persevere. Continue interviewing at companies too small to operate a human resources department. HR staffers are paid to exclude applicants who miss job criteria, including education.

Work short-term. Seek staffing firms that will send you on temporary or contract assignments so that employers can see how good you are and offer you a regular-status job.

Network. Try social networks, such as LinkedIn.com, to find a contact within your target company who will see that you’re interviewed by a hiring manager. Hopefully your contact will advise the hiring manager that you’re so talented that your experience is more than equivalent to a degree.

Whatever you do, don’t lie about your education to get in the door. The digital explosion of online research channels makes it almost a certainty that false claims — especially false educational claims — will surface.

Heading back to school

If you enroll in a formal degree program, be sure to mention this fact, to explain that you don’t have a sheepskin now but are hot on the trail of a degree.

My experience in the point-of-sale industry more than compensates for my present lack of a marketing degree. (Cite several examples showing you know what you’re talking about.)

However, I can see that a degree is important to you, and I want to mention that I’m enrolled in a degree program now, with expected graduation in 20XX.

So you have the best of both worlds with me — heavy-duty experience, plus current academic knowledge.

But if smoothing out the scratches on your blackboard with a heavy schedule of classes at a four-year campus while pounding away at your day job is more than you can tackle right now, consider these options:

Kick off your educational comeback in slow motion. Begin with one modestly priced community college course.

Enroll in a distance education degree program. Costs vary considerably, from such private institutions as the University of Phoenix on the high end, to such public institutions as New Jersey’s Thomas Edison State College on the low end. Scout online education at www.geteducated.com for the best bang for your buck.

Take advantage of a new kind of free online “auditing” opportunity offered by some of the nation’s finest colleges and universities.

The trend started with Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s OpenCourseWare. As of 2011, MIT freely publishes materials from virtually all of its 2,000 courses, reaching 100 million individuals worldwide.

Joining the list of name colleges and universities offering free course materials online are Yale, Notre Dame, Bryn Mawr, University of California–Berkeley, and Stanford, to name a few. Specifics vary by school, but institutions are posting everything from lecture notes and sample tests to actual audio and video. Browse at www.openculture.com/freeonlinecourse.

Sign up for lectures. Granted, lectures aren’t degree-granting programs, but if you enroll in one for the joy of learning, you can legitimately mention in a job interview that you are “enrolled at MIT, [year], Physics II.”

You’re probably besieged with Internet spam advertising “overnight” delivery of impressive college degrees: Get a Harvard law degree tomorrow, only $29.95. Don’t fall for such baloney. Degree-mill documents are suitable for shredding. In this new age of instant Internet sleuthing, the truth will come out.

Boomers: High on Adaptability

Interviewers concentrate on your work experience, but you should still expect them to ask about your education or training. They want to know whether you’re rusted out or ready to keep up with your industry by making the effort to learn new skills.

Education and training come in many forms. In addition to colleges and universities, vocational-technical institutions, private career schools, and military schools count heavily. And you can discuss other learning resources such as the following:

Company training programs you’ve participated in and what you learned in those training programs.

Trade or professional journals that you read regularly, online, or in print.

Professional conferences, seminars, and workshops that you’ve attended recently (or plan to attend soon), especially those offering CEUs (continuing education units).

Webinars through which you find new information; many are free.

Technology training that you’ve had, are taking, or expect to take. When appropriate, use computer jargon during your interviews.

In whichever manner you address employers’ questions about education and training, communicate this attitude:

You don’t expect to do a job the same way tomorrow that you did yesterday.

You’ve continued to learn new trends and developments in your field throughout your career — and, certainly, you’re always willing to learn more.

The Questions

What do you do to keep up-to-date in your job? How do you improve yourself professionally?

ShowStoppers

Describe your participation in professional associations, seminars, meetings and activities, and Internet professional discussion groups.

Say you study professional websites and magazines, look for technical breakthroughs, and seek certifications that document your continued skill building (describe certifications).

Discuss classes and programs in which you’re enrolled.

Clunkers and Bloopers

Be nonspecific in saying you keep your radar up.

Look uncomfortable and mumble that you plan to return to school soon.

Of what value do you consider academic degrees?

ShowStoppers

Comment that, when matched with solid experience, degrees are excellent.

Remark that degrees are essential, but emphasize that you must continue to learn throughout your life and plan to do so.

If you have no degree, assert that work accomplishments and interpersonal skills are as important as education. Your record documents that you have the right background to succeed in this position.

Clunkers and Bloopers

Knock the value of formal education. Say it’s overrated.

Observe that you’ve been too busy at home raising a family to stay current with all the things changing in the world today.

I see you’ve been attending a training program online. Do you believe distance education is as beneficial as sitting in a classroom?

ShowStoppers

Say yes. Defend your education. Be positive, responding that what you know is the important issue — not where you learned it.

Identify your institution’s accreditation. Say that your study was designed by the best minds in the field. Mention any honors accorded your online program.

Be confident, noting that some educators think online students are more committed than campus students — that their motivation is stronger. Say that, from personal perseverance, you agree.

Add that the online learning experience immensely improved your digital skills— and be ready to explain how.

Clunkers and Bloopers

Be defensive, lamenting that distance education was the only way you could manage to work and learn.

Explain that your only online class was really for life enrichment or a hobby, not for work.

Millennials: High on Education, Low on Experience

Education is magnificent, but today you need more than formal learning to rank as an A-list job candidate.

You have to look focused. You have to look passionate about what you want to do. You have to show how your education has prepared you for the job you target.

Whenever possible, present your education as work experience. If that seems like a reach, think of it this way:

You have experience working with deadlines and with applying skills that you’ve learned throughout the years as you completed various projects and prepared for exams.

You’ve probably given at least one presentation, so you’ve had experience preparing it, and you have experience communicating to a group of people.

To get through school without killing yourself, you probably had to develop some type of time schedule, so you have valuable experience in time management — organizing your time for greatest efficiency.

You don’t want to shortchange yourself by neglecting any of these important workplace-related experiences.

The Questions

Questions you may be asked that relate to education and training include the following:

How or why did you choose your major? What factors led to your decision to choose your major?

ShowStoppers

Show that you took a deliberate, systematic approach in choosing your major, focusing on future career goals.

If you studied liberal arts, respond that you sought to learn how to reason, research, and communicate, as well as to do. Explain that you put meat on academic bones with career-oriented courses, seminars, internships, co-op education programs, and extracurricular activities.

Discuss the courses you’ve taken that are most job related and show how they can help you meet the challenges of the job.

Show that your choice was logical, considering your interests and skills.

Clunkers and Bloopers

Ramble or give vague answers.

Say you chose the same major as the homecoming queen, based on her advice.

What was your grade point average?

ShowStoppers

When your grade point average is low, follow these tips:

Give positive reasons for a poor or marginal grade point average (GPA). You had to work virtually full time to pay for your school and living expenses. For jobs working with people, you devoted much time to “real life” experiences, such as leadership positions in campus organizations.

Emphasize that your grades within your major are excellent or that they improved dramatically within the last two years. Cite reasons why your grades improved.

Emphasize that success in academics and on the job requires more than a high GPA. Discuss the skills you learned outside of your course work that can contribute to your success.

Remark how your GPA gradually rose as you learned better study habits and say you wish you had learned them sooner, but you’ve got the message now.

Answer the question and quickly redirect the discussion to your skills and how you can apply those skills to the job.

Give specific examples of your success in job-related pursuits, outside of your GPA.

When your grade point average is impressive, use these strategies:

Emphasize that your education extends beyond the classroom. Discuss extracurricular activities and what you learned from them that you can apply to the job.

Explain the factors that are common to both a high GPA and success on the job, such as organizing, prioritizing, and committing to goals.

Clunkers and Bloopers

Say you don’t know why you got a low GPA.

Confess any weaknesses, unless you can show how you have overcome them.

Offer transparent alibis for poor grades.

Assert that grades aren’t important or be defensively arrogant.

What extracurricular activities did you participate in? What leadership positions did you hold?

ShowStoppers

Emphasize goal-oriented activities or groups over “fun” ones. About sororities and fraternities — carefully mention only leadership and good works, not the social aspect; otherwise, nonmembers may think “party animal” and write you off.

Discuss all leadership roles, teamwork, and self-motivation; explain how those experiences will help you do the job.

Discuss skills you learned from the activities or groups and how those skills apply to the job.

If you didn’t participate in extracurricular activities, explain that you had to work so many hours that being active in campus groups would have left you with too little time for your course work.

If you didn’t join campus organizations until later in your education, say you wish you had joined them sooner, emphasizing what those organizations taught you.

Mention all elected offices you held.

Clunkers and Bloopers

Mention only good-time social activities without articulating leadership or teamwork experiences drawn from them.

Dwell on membership in political or religious groups (unless you know you’re talking to a kindred soul who shares your beliefs).

Admit that you made a poor decision.

In what areas could your education have better prepared you for your career?

ShowStoppers

Your academic studies did not include the quality of hands-on experience you hope to have here, but overall, your education superbly prepared you for this job.

Explain how you made up for lack of experience with student jobs, co-op education, internships, or unpaid work with campus organizations or nonprofit organizations.

Clunkers and Bloopers

Insist that you’re totally prepared for your career — you could be vice president of Google tomorrow.

Say that you’re not sure how your degree in fine arts will translate to selling medical supplies.

Academically, what were your best and worst courses? What courses did you like best and least?

ShowStoppers

For best courses, choose those that you got the best grades in that were most related to the job.

For worst courses, choose those least related to the job.

Discuss course content or presentation as reasons for liking or not liking a course.

Clunkers and Bloopers

Name and criticize courses you did poorly in.

Cite your poor academic performance — or incompetent professor — as a reason for not liking a course.