Sometimes a Degree Just Isn't Enough

I have served as a hiring manager in three different industries. Each one afforded me the opportunity to meet with young hopefuls eager to make their mark on society. The three industries I worked in, manufacturing, health care staffing and insurance/financial services, afforded me the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life with varying educational and work backgrounds.

But some just didn't make the cut.

Before I go on, let's talk salaries. When most people hear manufacturing, they assume I only hired entry level hourly employees. While this did occupy a bulk of my time, I was also on the search team for three department managers (starting salary $60,000), a maintenance manager (starting salary $72,000) and shift supervisors (starting salary $40k to $45k). In the Healthcare Staffing company, a dietician could fetch $40k to $50k per year depending on qualifications and the size of the account to which we assigned them. In the Insurance world, low-end representatives made $35,000 to $40,000 while the upper echelon made over $100,000.

When you post an advertisement announcing work at a new manufacturing facility, you can often expect large volumes of applications, resumes and letters of interest. This was my first introduction to the top three things that prospective employees do that all but guarantee they won't be hired:

Fluorescent Resume - It hurts your eyes, it assaults your senses and it triggers a migraine. But someone thought that printing their qualifications on neon green, orange or pink stock would make their resume "pop" and make it to the top of the pile. Instead, it made it to the trash can.

Cover Letter or Dissertation? Cover Letters should be brief and to the point, highlighting career goals and pointing to specifics within your attached resume. Periodically, however, I would receive a cover letter that was actually more of a demand letter. These were typically an entire page (single spaced), where the applicant would inform me they "might be willing to accept a position" with my company. Gee, thanks. Followed by a list of incentives they will "require" in order to seriously consider. These demands ranged from expense accounts to tuition reimbursement and from being assigned an administrative assistant to having their own parking space. But, "you get what you pay for," one hopeful applicant assured me. No thanks.

Inflating Qualifications - One rather impressive resume I reviewed resulted in an interview rather quickly. The individual had a Bachelors degree and MBA from a rather impressive school and what appeared to be volumes of relevant work experience. At the interview the truth came out. Though they had attended that particular college, they never officially graduated. But, because they had earned nearly 250 college credits during their time there, they assumed that was the same as having been awarded an undergraduate and graduate degree. As for the relevant work experience, I learned that "senior accountant" referred to his balancing the checkbook for his wife's at-home business. Inflating your qualifications may get you in the door, but once your prospective employer finds out (and eventually they will) it will be right back out for you.

There are many people who do not make these costly errors, however, who also cannot find suitable employment. This is a group of recent or upcoming college graduates who feel a certain sense of entitlement. This leads me to the top three mistakes that recent college graduates seem to be making, at least as far as I can tell from the resumes which have crossed my desk.

No Work Experience - If I receive a resume showing that an individual holds a college degree but has no work experience, I send it immediately to the recycling bin. Even though mom and dad may pay your tuition and see that you want for nothing, it is your responsibility to develop your career. A college degree tells me that for four years you were able to sit in a classroom and at least pass the tests placed in front of you. Nothing more. Having a degree in Finance does not make you a Financial expert. This is not to say that you are expected to have a killer resume by the time you graduate. Let me share with you the story of two college graduates who came to me looking for work. The two were friends and had graduated together with degrees in Business Administration/Finance around the same time. The first, I will call Kevin and the second, Mike. Kevin took full advantage of opportunities at college. He had a regular stream of internships during his studies and by the time he graduated, had some experience working around a financial firm and had also acquired his Life and Health Insurance Agent license (the first license required on the road to become a stock broker). Mike, on the other hand, had no internships. He cited his reasons being that internships were often unpaid or paid very little and he could make more money waiting tables. While this might be understood as a matter of survival, Mike also volunteered the information that he was not responsible for tuition or books, and lived at home where his parents also provided food, shelter and his car payment. He admitted, the extra money he so desperately needed was "beer money."

Kevin was hired, Mike was not. Not that there is anything wrong with earning beer money while in college, but Kevin stood out by having used his time in college to, well, prepare for his career.

Applying Too High - When I was working at the manufacturing facility, I was interviewing prospective candidates for the production supervisor position. This was the second level of management, just above foreman and below department manager. One applicant had graduated from college recently and had a brief work history at a staffing agency. When asked why they felt that, with no manufacturing or other management experience, they felt qualified to supervise others. The answer: "My degree is in management."

Degrees in management are not a shortcut. They do not allow you to bypass the entry-level positions and jump right to the top. Rather, they are intended to provide you the tools necessary to develop your natural born leadership skills so that, placed into the working environment you will excel and find yourself managing others armed with necessary tools such as how to write performance evaluations and conform to labor law.

Finger Pointing - This last example applies more to internal promotions. Once, at the manufacturing facility, we posted a job notice and opened it to all employees who were employed with us for at least 3 months. One applicant graduated from college about 6 months prior, and had been working with us for exactly 3 months when he applied for the promotion. The person who was promoted had been working for the company for four years, had an associates degree, and prior to working with us, worked as a department manager for 5 years at another company where he earned top performance evaluations. We hired the more experienced person because we felt he could immediately take the reigns and lead the department. This resulted in the recent college graduate coming to my office in a huff:

"HE doesn't even have a Bachelors degree." He shouted.

"No, but he has plenty of experience and an Associates degree." I replied.

"Well, I heard he got fired from his last job." He said.

There I ended the discussion. You don't always promote when you apply for it. This is a fact of life. The above conversation further planted a seed of distaste in my mouth that a person would virulently attack the recipient of the promotion. Talk about being a sore loser.

Had he come to me and asked why he was not chosen and what he might do to improve his chances of promotion in the future, I would have taken it much differently. That I would have viewed as ambition and willingness to learn and improve. Two qualities I would like to see in an employee.

Sometimes a degree just isn't enough to get the job. While degrees are becoming increasingly important, more and more people are earning them. When everybody has a degree, they cease to be that special. Belief that you are the best choice for the job and can handle everything that will be thrown at you is what gets you hired. College degrees are a means but not an end. Supplement your studies with relevant internships or work experience and after graduation, just remember that your top grades do not make you too good to start at the bottom.