I've been told to pretend I don't have any qualifications!!!

liney

It's all about what's relevant. A degree is not relevent for many jobs. Lesser qualifications and experience would therefore be preferable.

I was suggesting that maybe the advisor was pre-empting the assumption that qualifactions mean wonderful job offers. Unfortunately they don't nowdays, because of the percentage of students going into higher education the qualifications are losing weight with employers it seems.

Blame the goverment and their '50% of young people should go into higher education' drive?

andyrules

liney wrote: »

It's all about what's relevant. A degree is not relevent for many jobs. Lesser qualifications and experience would therefore be preferable.

I was suggesting that maybe the advisor was pre-empting the assumption that qualifactions mean wonderful job offers. Unfortunately they don't nowdays, because of the percentage of students going into higher education the qualifications are losing weight with employers it seems.

Blame the goverment and their '50% of young people should go into higher education' drive?

Yup, unfortunately, I believe you are right, a degree, in some cases, could be considered either useless or a hindrance.

Not much comfort for Black saturn and others in her position.

black-saturn

OK I just want to clarify a couple of things. I have seven A levels. Six of them are grade A and one is a grade B and they are in English lang, English Lit, Communication Studies, Business Studies, Psychology, Art and Theatre Studies.

I also have a diploma in beauty therapy and a degree in Publicity and Marketing (a 1st). I have just finished a diploma in Travel and Tourism and am awaiting the result. I also have various RSA office qualifications such as ICT, shorthand, typing and word processing and I also have a basic certificate in hairdressing.

By no means would I consider any of these qualifications to be worthless.

trish06

my hubby went to a bricklaying interview
he handed over his cv,they took a look and said that he was to over qualified for the job,so now with any interview he does not take his cv
also when he sends off a cv,most of it is edited due to being over qualified

shelovestobuystuff

andyrules wrote: »

That's shocking! are you sure this is so? Only I am becoming fast disillusioned with the whole concept of a degree, unless it is something very specific like science for research for example.

Apparantly the most useless degree as seen by employers is a Social science degree.Not fair!!!

shelovestobuystuff

"Its not what you know its who you know":D
Thats always going to be the basic truth of it.My poor hubby sometimes feels his 9 years in training for his degree was worth nothing when he sees the 18 year old nephew of the company director being promoted over him after working for the company for just 3 months.Bloods thicker than water.
I suppose it happens everywhere.:rolleyes:

melancholly

surely if you write a good covering letter, explaining why you want a particular job, and how you feel you are appropriate for the role, then your CV details can be made to fit? these days people seem to want a skills CV a lot of the time anywhere, and even if you've done a 'pointless' degree you make it relevant because of the IT skills you used for coursework, or talk about teamwork skills from group work you might have done.

this link goes to a page from prospects about types of CV - thought it might be useful for someone!

shelovestobuystuff

Black-saturn,I feel a bit awkward trying to advise you at all:o since you are obviously a very savvy lady,but with your degree and experience,and it looks like you are always very busy,able to juggle loads of different things successfully,don,t you think you may be limiting your possibilities by looking for employment with someone else when you could very clearly make a go of it as a self-employed business woman.:D

ajaxgeezer

shelovestobuystuff wrote: »

Black-saturn,I feel a bit awkward trying to advise you at all:o since you are obviously a very savvy lady,but with your degree and experience,and it looks like you are always very busy,able to juggle loads of different things successfully,don,t you think you may be limiting your possibilities by looking for employment with someone else when you could very clearly make a go of it as a self-employed business woman.:D

... the ability to be your own boss has nothing to do with education or even intelligence, it's a different skill altogether. The most self-successful man I personally know is (and he really won't mind me saying this) thick as pig [strike]sh[/strike] poo. He just has a quality and an eye for success, borrowed a bit of money from his mother in law, and now owns a chain of thriving businesses. Me on the other hand, Mensa member (but really not educated at all), could never do that - never. I just don't have the skill.

With regard to the original question, I think that it is sensible to leave out reams of qualifications if they are not relevant. I'd personally always tailor a CV, not just an application form.

black-saturn

Good idea. I may look into making my own work.