Should I remove my degree from my resume?

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I've thought about doing this previously. I'm changing careers, and the entry level jobs in this field are hard to get apparently. It could be the "overqualified" persona we all love so much. Do you think it would help getting entry level jobs without my college degree on my resume? Thoughts?

No.....because, sometimes, even retail jobs require "some college." Especially in high population areas.

OK…what asinine employer do you want to work for who won't hire you because of an advanced college degree? What part of "I'm looking to start at an entry-level position" is really so hard to understand?

That said, though, I want to know why you aren't putting your degree to work for you. I have a master's degree in music composition. It hasn't really served me as well as I'd hoped, and I blame that on how kids in my generation were taught and misled that education is everything. I've persisted in making a career of music and have accepted all the twists, turns, and perpetual poverty it has put me through. But with age comes experience, and I feel I'm only just now getting my priorities right. The future is looking a little brighter every day and I'm not in the least interested in starting a new career. Persistence always pays off, depending on how you look at it. I don't know what you do or what your degree is in, but my instincts right now tell me you need to get busy doing what you know and keep moving up in your field. Starting back at the bottom in another area never made much sense to me.

Yes----I often don't include my education on my resume (I have several different resumes)----BUT, it depends on what type of job, for which I'm applying..... If I'm applying for a waitress job, "no"----if I'm applying for a management job, "yes"----IF they ask for a degree. I recently applied for a really well-paying analyst job and I didn't include my education, because they didn't ask for it----and, there's just some people who feel that people with degrees are "show-offs"; or, are asking for special treatment.

I feel it all depends on the type of job, for which one is applying----and, IF they're asking for a degree. I've even seen ads for secretarial positions asking for degrees, nowadays----I think it's RIDICULOUS----ESPECIALLY, when they're only offering, say, 10 dollars, an hour!! 'Course, I HAVE seen some secretarial jobs, that were asking for a degree, that pay 40+ thousand, per year, though.....

It all depends----go with your gut!!

I just wanted to add this to my other post. You need to know a little secret about hiring: Depending on the job, of course, MOST people don't get hired just because they fill out an application and send in a resumé. All those things are do is occupy space on someone's desk so they remember that you stopped by to ask about the job. The highest paying positions are the one with the most competition. There are stacks of apps and resumés from the floor to the ceiling in some back closet in HR that nobody will ever see. What you want to do is get your resumé to an administrator's desk. The way you do that is form a relationship with the company you want to work for. You need to have a close friend who works there. Or a close friend who has a sister or cousin who works as the official coffeemaker for the big boss. Someone you can connect with who will personally deliver your app and resumé to the big marble desk. This doesn't guarantee that you'll get hired, of course. But it drastically increases the odds of you getting an interview. The last teaching job I had was handed to me…I didn't apply for it. All I wanted to do was teach piano lessons. I didn't even know the job was coming open.

My wife had been head teller at one bank and had a good working relationship with her branch manager. Turns out their operations department either all previously ran an insane asylum or escaped from one, and this particular branch suffered extremely high employee turnaround. So after she was demoted, she put in for head teller at a different bank. Turns out her branch manager was really good friends with the president of the other bank. She had no idea this happened, but after she told her branch manager she was applying for a different job, he immediately got on the phone with his competitor and DEMANDED they hire her. Two weeks later she was hired and put in her notice. And within a month, I think, her former branch manager quit! The thing was while she did apps and interviews, those were mere formalities. They already planned to hire her. Everything the did in the mean time was simply compliance with law and company policy.

That's how it usually works in the real world, and not many people will tell you this. The only jobs where you actually go through with interviews and applications are high-turnaround jobs like burger-flipping and inner-city public schools. Nobody gets REAL jobs that way. What you do is you get an entry-level job just to put gas in the car and pay rent. On your days off, you go spend time getting to know competitors and building relationships. Entry-level types know you're doing this because they live in the real world, too, and they don't expect people to stick around. That's not why they hired you, and they don't REALLY want to keep you around for very long, anyway. You might think you can rise through the ranks, but if you don't form those kinds of relationships with your employer, they're going to remind you they hired a burger flipper, not a store manager. You start out as a burger flipper, stick with it for a year, and then when a competing franchise advertises for "Hiring New Managers, Will Train," you jump on it. Stick with it for a year or two, and if you really, REALLY liked your previous franchise and want to go back, you wait for them to advertise "Managers needed, experience required" and you jump on it. Stick with it for maybe 5 years, and start looking for jobs in operations or some such, and if you're really making a killing and you know your business through and through, buy a franchise yourself. Buy a few franchises in your area if you can.

One last pro-tip: Nobody really requires previous experience. They just stick that in job descriptions to scare off people who aren't serious. If previous experience is actually required, most likely they'll provide you with that in the form of on-the-job training. I've never worked a teaching job that didn't require previous teaching experience in public schools. It's a Catch-22. You earn experience through teaching degree programs. The more competitive schools will NOT hire you without at least 5 years under your belt, which you get through teaching in private schools or in underprivileged urban or rural communities. If you hang out with the right people, you might slide under some loopholes somewhere, but those early years in a career are better spent networking at every available opportunity. It's important to improve your knowledge and skill level, but you can't make it on those things alone.

I had more responses in my job search when I took my college education off my resume. Sometimes I left it completely off, and sometimes I left off my irrelevant major and just said I had a bachelors.

AngelRho, thank you.

My degree is in financial services and I've spent the better part of a decade in that field. I'm burnt out from bouncing to so many different jobs in that field. I'd like to be a successful salesman, but it's not me. I can stand up and give a speech to a thousand people, no problem. Mr. and Mrs. Smith sitting at my desk, nerve-racking. Sure, I know my stuff and I take care of their needs and wants, but repeated that over and over is maddening. Earlier this month, I finally had to just back out.

I've tried to get into the back office side of the industry but those positions are flooded with people like me. Definition of insanity. I figured staking out in a new field would be the better way forward. Thankfully, I do have some savings but I don't want to use it up either.

I used to work in middle management in a software development company. I would hire people with a bachelors in a related field. One of the reasons I would not hire people with more education is because I would not expect a person better educated than me to be my subordinate. I didn't hire people with less education because I wanted people with an established interest in the type of work my company performed. I didn't hire people with education in an unrelated field because I assumed they would leave my company for something better suited for them.

I agree that networking can be very helpful to get a job, but I got every job I ever had from an application and resume. With only one exception, I also only hired people who did not have any former ties to my company. The reason for that was the same. I wasn't going to hire anyone under me who had an advantage over me.

Another poster suggested having several resumes. I agree with that. It's important to show that you have real interest and real practical experience in any job you apply for. Let's say you'd accept a job as a bank teller, even though you have more advanced education. You'd have to highlight any applicable skills, but also give a reason why you would not be looking to "advance" in your career for awhile. You could say you're looking for a "practical, stable" job.

For me, simply stating on my resume that I attended my university was enough for them to assume that I received a degree which I hadn't received. This might help in your case of wanting to shade your advanced degree. Then, if a future interviewer asks what your degree actually is, you could admit it fully, or continue to shade by simply saying it was in a certain "field" of study. Unless you are seeking employment which requires a certain degree, I have never met an employer who asks.

No offense intended here, and I hope you understand what I mean, but you've underscored exactly the type of person I would NEVER knowingly want to work for. The thing about people with an "advantage" over you that you've missed is that EVERYONE is better than you at SOMETHING. Every person you meet has some advantage over you. These kinds of HR practices reek of fear. That's not the sort of company I want to work for.

I don't really KNOW you that well, so please understand I have absolutely no reason to be confrontational or unfriendly--hence I'll spare you the lecture that immediately came to mind!

I'm curious about one thing, though: You "used to work…" Why did you leave, and what do you currently do? If you don't want to answer, I'll understand--but I am very intrigued!

No, no, it's cool. I talked about it because it's important for people to know what's in the minds of potential employers, especially NT ones. Most managers discriminate and manipulate. That's why they're there.

I used to be a technical writer and was promoted to manager after six months, I believe because I basically have the right kind of personality for management- I prefer to control my environment, I can easily motivate people, even people I can't stand, and I seem to have a talent for placing people in projects where they can be most useful. You can look at this another way and say that I can manipulate people. I put people together who I knew would work well together and I hired people to work on things they liked and could do easily. I cared about my employees, but I also knew that people who are happy are more productive.

I took a medical retirement, but I could have kept working with accommodations, that the company would have given me. The real reason I left was because I was being asked to let my employees be mistreated and comply with the mistreatment of other people there.

Many people at my company (software development) should have been OVER me, not UNDER me. I worked with a lot of people from India and many autistic people. The autistic people were bullied and never advanced. Only the Indians who acted white were advanced. The women were paid less than the men, no matter what their skills. You have uncomfortable knowledge when you're in management. The longer I was there, and asked to use my skills to contribute to this system, the worse I felt.

I am now on state and private disability. I've completed a second bachelor's degree in sociology and am about to finish a master's in the same subject. I study critical autism theory, which is a new field that takes a social constructionist view of autism- i.e. looking at the phenomenon with no assumptions. I hope that my work will contribute to improved conditions for autistic people, who are a social minority.

The reason I study autism from this point of view is because many people in my family, my husband, my friends, and mentors are on the autism spectrum. I am offended at a fundamental level at the way autistic people are treated by the general public.

Sorry for the long winded answer.

Depends.

I have an advanced degree, so for some things I leave it off my resume. It is important to know that a prospective employer won't find out about the unlisted education (e.g., gap in employment you can't explain).

Lots of employers don't want someone "overquaified" for the job...it means they will likely not stick around if they are worthy of better or they might be "know-it-alls."

It's sad because right now, in the USA, a lot of people have college degree(s) and can't find work in the field they trained in and need any job they can get to pay the bills. With current employment prospects, they might be in those "low brow" jobs for several years whether they like it or not.

I beg to differ -- people mostly don't get good jobs simply by applying for them, though they occasionally do. If your resume lands on the desk of the manager on the day that you solve their problem, you might actually get hired.

My first job out of college was as a copywriter at a large pharmaceutical company (my degree and interests had nothing to do with marketing or medications) -- they were kind of desperate and took a chance on me. So it can happen.

Sure, they OCCASIONALLY get good jobs. There's no argument that there's a certain element of luck to it. I just don't believe in putting a whole lot of stock in luck. After all, luck favors the prepared. Do your leg work, get to know people, and get your resume to the top of the stack on the HR director's or CEO's desk.

I know all about hiring people out of desperation. My first band director job was like that. They hired me a week before school started. Luckily I had all the green knocked off of me with my first teaching job, middle school (5-8) music in an underprivileged district. They cut the music program (btw, I'd always been taught by my professors there's a shortage of teachers and it's a great way for music grads to get secure jobs. I'm LMFAO about it now, but back then the real world wasn't kind to me) along with denying me a contract for the next year. So, anyway, I took a band job a week before school started, another predominantly minority rural district. Managed to survive a year, though i suspected I was working for crazy people. Suspicions were confirmed my second year on that job with a new principal and assistant principal who never agreed on enforcing disciplinary policies. Drove me freakin' nuts to the point I told them I don't care if they offer me a contract or not…I'm gone. I've had jobs since then, and not one of them from actual applications. Some things worked better for me than others, but I've dropped out of pretty much everything because I found it was cheaper to NOT work and raise my third child than it was to slave away and not even break even after daycare fees. Even if I wanted to get back into law or education, I still wouldn't fill out applications. I'd have a resumé highlighting my paralegal/process server and education experience so they'd remember me. But a lot of what I'd do is simply cold-call lawyers and school administrators and say, "Hey, if _____ ever opens up, or you need a sub, or, heck, you have room for volunteers, gimme a call and let me know when/where to show up." Believe it or not, I got a phone call from a "friend-of-a-friend" the day before school started asking me if I'd take a band director job. I declined for two reasons: They already had a guy and I didn't want to take his job, and my teaching license expired years ago and I never saw any point in renewing. I mean, this guy was just going to hand me a job THE DAY before school started!! !

I'm not saying resumés and applications are useless. I'm not saying you CAN'T get jobs that way, or that you NEVER get jobs that way. I'm just saying if you're serious about getting work and moving up in your career, you need to move beyond applications. The kinds of teaching jobs I actually APPLIED for and got were not the sort of teaching jobs you really want. The first time around, I had a lack of experience and the kids were completely undisciplined, and don't get me started on the parents! I pretty much gave up after two weeks, but I don't believe in breaking contracts. Second job taught me how messed up administrators can be. My third and final teaching job was with a good school, and I didn't apply for that one. But that's why I'm not in schools anymore. That pretty much sealed my distrust for school administrators.

Aside from that, I didn't apply for my church gig. I didn't apply for running the piano studio after I lost my second band gig. I didn't apply to start a piano teaching studio at the local university extension campus. I don't even hang out at bridal fairs or advertise and I get weddings, private parties, and fundraiser. I didn't apply to be the musical director for one season with the community theater. I just show up when the calls come. I'm not a millionaire or anything…I'm just a stay-at-home dad. But it's the same attitude and approach that most often lead to the highest-paid and highest-responsibility positions. Applications and resumés are really there just so they'll have something on file. They're going to hire people they know before they hire people they don't.

To a certain extent, getting a job is a numbers game. The more you get resumes out, the more you talk to people, the more you get the word out that you are looking for work, the more likely it will be that you'll get an offer.

I've also been pleasantly surprised by how helpful some people can be even when you don't get the job and I've tried to return the favor. On several occasions, I did not get the position but the people who interviewed me contacted me to say I was terrific but somebody else was more qualified, but could they pass my name into somebody else at their company who has an opening.

This is absolutely true.

Also, there were a couple times when I didn't hire people because I knew I couldn't pay them enough and they wouldn't be happy in the position I had open. This happened two or three times. In one of the instances, I kept up with the candidate. She was promoted soon after I turned her down and was doing very well. I got back in touch with another candidate afterward and she got a job making significantly more than I could have paid her and was also doing well.