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Dropped out of Uni due to stress. What do I put in a CV

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  • System
    System Posts: 178,355 Community Admin
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    Mrs_Soup wrote: »
    Definitely check if he is entitled to a lesser award as he then has something to show for it.


    This would have been automatically generated so he should have the certificate. If not, chase this up with the university. If OP's son completed the first year but not the second, he should have what's known as a Certificate in HE - that's at least one year explained away already :-)
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  • tyllwyd
    tyllwyd Posts: 5,496 Forumite
    It was a long time ago now (late 80s), but I dropped out of one course at uni after two years and then went straight into a different degree course that I completed. I put 'passed years one and two of X degree' in my CV for those years and nobody ever even asked me about it at interview.
  • katsu
    katsu Posts: 5,023 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Mortgage-free Glee!
    I also left part way through a degree and put it on my CV (something simple like "completed years 1 and 2 of an XX degree" might match your son's situation) for the reasons zagubov describes. I was usually asked about it at interviews (more when I was younger), but have since gained professional qualifications and I find that now it is only more "snobby" or academic companies or people that ask about it. I suggest your son develops his own explanation for why he left, looking at the work and career he is now aiming for. Maybe something like "I realised that studying X at uni was different to studying it at school/I did not want to work in X", or maybe just "being at university was different than I had imagined, and I realised over the summer of my second year that I enjoyed being at work in hospitality more, so I decided to focus on my work and develop my experience and career that way"?

    I have interviewed and hired other people who left university during a degree course, for reasons from health where they became ill during the course or had a relative who became seriously ill, to not wanting to work in the field to not enjoying the uni experience, to taking a year out and being in a situation where they were doing well at work and so it made more sense to not go back, and their life moved on. There are more of us than your son may realise!

    I suggest your son gets a non-emotional version of events that he gets used to saying, so it becomes a quick explanation he can deliver very calmly, then gets used to the idea people will ask him about it at interviews.

    I would think your son is in an industry where his commerical experiences are the relevant things that would be the main interest for prospective employers and he is unlikely not to be shortlisted over the uni experience unless the job spec ideally wanted a degree and he is up against candidates with degrees.

    I was told that as degrees are the business of universities, that they would generally not ever hire someone who had dropped out, and I have had issues with some companies where they think everyone needs a degree, but generally it is just one of the things your son will get used to explaining and one day he will realise no-one asks any more!
    Debt at highest: £8k. Debt Free 31/12/2009. Original MFD May 2036, MF Dec 2018.
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