Exams/Certificates are worthless

[obdigore]

My interests Programming/Web-Development/Game Development. They are hardly entry jobs, I know for a fact that my interviewer hired me, because of my knowledge in script programming rather than looking at my IT grade. I am talking about not degrees, but high-school grades and certs.

Programming/WebDev absolutely has entry level openings.

Certs help you get your foot in the door if you don't have experience, and round out a resume that does if you don't have a 2-4 year degree in a related field.

[Xar226]

Some might disagree with me, but from my experience, my brother's (3 years younger), my class mates experience, is that they were never asked to use their exam certificates to lets say "boost" their career and most of the time, the learning in school is a waste since you forget the half of it after like 6 months times.

Very few people offer a job based on your schooling -- but especially for people straight out of school, whether or not you have that schooling on your resume is a big factor in whether or not anybody bothers to read your resume in the first place.

Hiring managers are notorious for that kind of quick-glance disqualification. There's a well-known stat circulating around saying that recruiters only look at a resume for an average of six seconds; they're looking for reasons to put you in the "read more" or "dump" pile as quickly as they can find it. Unless it's a hard-to-fill role, there are probably way more applicants than can be hired. Once you get more experience in your industry, the experience comes to the forefront more and more and education falls back.

As far as forgetting, you forget what you don't use. That's a big chunk of a university education, but how much of in-field knowledge you use really depends on the quality of your program, your diligence within it and how closely the job you want matches it.

[Kaillus]

I am 46 with two bachelor degrees. First in Mechancial Engineering, the second in Accounting. I got like a 2.75 GPA in engineering. The only way I got a job was through my uncle having some pul at the Natural Gas Company I got a job at. He was the union leader for awhile. My GPA was too low for every other company I applied at.

I got the accounting degree when I was 38. I was 60 lbs overweight, and I got interviews because I had a 3.95 GPA. I never got a second interview, even for a IT Audit position at a bank which I was perfect for. The interviewer even said I was perfect and there was no reason to even have the interview. Oh, I had 5 years IT experience after I quit the engineering job. I honestly believe that I didn't fit the physical image the accounting firms were going for, young and good looking. If I was 22 again, I would have gotten hired no problem. I eventually got a job working for the government as an accounting intern, and that eventually got me into IT Security.

So, degrees help, but knowing someone, having a good personality, and BSing your way through interviews does wonders. I have always said the college degrees are BS. As a society we are brainwashed by the media and corporations to believe that you will never succeed unless you get that degree. 90% of ll the work I have ever done had nothing to do with what I learned, and mostly forgot, in my college classes. Some say that colleges and exams are just a metric to show our ability to learn and understand different things. Maybe so. Being a logical thinker, having a lot of common sense, having a good personality that gets along with everyone, going above and beyond expectations, and thinking outside the box will get you further than any college degree will in my opinion.

[obdigore]

Very few people offer a job based on your schooling -- but especially for people straight out of school, whether or not you have that schooling on your resume is a big factor in whether or not anybody bothers to read your resume in the first place.

Hiring managers are notorious for that kind of quick-glance disqualification. There's a well-known stat circulating around saying that recruiters only look at a resume for an average of six seconds; they're looking for reasons to put you in the "read more" or "dump" pile as quickly as they can find it. Unless it's a hard-to-fill role, there are probably way more applicants than can be hired. Once you get more experience in your industry, the experience comes to the forefront more and more and education falls back.

As far as forgetting, you forget what you don't use. That's a big chunk of a university education, but how much of in-field knowledge you use really depends on the quality of your program, your diligence within it and how closely the job you want matches it.

Most technical recruiters and HR people look for either a 4 year degree, or 10+ years of experience before the resume is even passed on to someone technical to give it a once over before anyone gets a phone interview, much less a face to face. They often have programs that troll through the hundreds or thousands of resumes received searching for keywords entered by HR/hiring manager,before a person even sees that resume.

[Independent voter]

13 interviews? ahahahahahaha

Try 85.

[Deleted]

You use your High School grades to get higher education, no one gives a shit about your HS grades in the real world but to write off those grades makes you a fool.

Not to get to higher education, but to get a job. I completed 5 years worth of studying in my high-school, thinking that if I get better grades than my peers, I will get a good job after examinations. Thats what my teachers told me, and supporting friends. After couple of years, I understood that this was just a lie and the grades I got are worthless. No one asks for them, they are stacked in my box. I had to self teach myself all over again, regarding programming, because the IT I was taught in school was just rubbish.

[Deleted]

I am 46 with two bachelor degrees. First in Mechancial Engineering, the second in Accounting. I got like a 2.75 GPA in engineering. The only way I got a job was through my uncle having some pul at the Natural Gas Company I got a job at. He was the union leader for awhile. My GPA was too low for every other company I applied at.

I got the accounting degree when I was 38. I was 60 lbs overweight, and I got interviews because I had a 3.95 GPA. I never got a second interview, even for a IT Audit position at a bank which I was perfect for. The interviewer even said I was perfect and there was no reason to even have the interview. Oh, I had 5 years IT experience after I quit the engineering job. I honestly believe that I didn't fit the physical image the accounting firms were going for, young and good looking. If I was 22 again, I would have gotten hired no problem. I eventually got a job working for the government as an accounting intern, and that eventually got me into IT Security.

So, degrees help, but knowing someone, having a good personality, and BSing your way through interviews does wonders. I have always said the college degrees are BS. As a society we are brainwashed by the media and corporations to believe that you will never succeed unless you get that degree. 90% of ll the work I have ever done had nothing to do with what I learned, and mostly forgot, in my college classes. Some say that colleges and exams are just a metric to show our ability to learn and understand different things. Maybe so. Being a logical thinker, having a lot of common sense, having a good personality that gets along with everyone, going above and beyond expectations, and thinking outside the box will get you further than any college degree will in my opinion.

As shitty as it is employers will judge someone on how they look, if you are overweight it often means you lack discipline and this rolls over into the work place.

[Kasierith]

I'm legally required to provide proof of my license and have it on open display at my place of work.

[Deleted]

Not to get to higher education, but to get a job. I completed 5 years worth of studying in my high-school, thinking that if I get better grades than my peers, I will get a good job after examinations. Thats what my teachers told me, and supporting friends. After couple of years, I understood that this was just a lie and the grades I got are worthless. No one asks for them, they are stacked in my box. I had to self teach myself all over again, regarding programming, because the IT I was taught in school was just rubbish.

Everyone goes to High School, in most countries it is mandatory. What did you do to stand out?

[Kasierith]

Not to get to higher education, but to get a job. I completed 5 years worth of studying in my high-school, thinking that if I get better grades than my peers, I will get a good job after examinations. Thats what my teachers told me, and supporting friends. After couple of years, I understood that this was just a lie and the grades I got are worthless. No one asks for them, they are stacked in my box. I had to self teach myself all over again, regarding programming, because the IT I was taught in school was just rubbish.

I have never heard anyone claim that grades factor into placement in the workplace, outside of hybrid programs like residencies that are half didactic half actual work.

[Deleted]

Programming/WebDev absolutely has entry level openings.

Certs help you get your foot in the door if you don't have experience, and round out a resume that does if you don't have a 2-4 year degree in a related field.

Certs will not get your foot in the door, since even interviewers never ask for them. Experience is the key, and your portfolio. Thats what I got out of this.

- - - Updated - - -

I have never heard anyone claim that grades factor into placement in the workplace, outside of hybrid programs like residencies that are half didactic half actual work.

My school did and UK schools all around

[obdigore]

Certs will not get your foot in the door, since even interviewers never ask for them. Experience is the key, and your portfolio. Thats what I got out of this.

Certs can get you the interview.

How you comport yourself in that interview is what will get you the job or not.

[Kasierith]

Certs will not get your foot in the door, since even interviewers never ask for them. Experience is the key, and your portfolio. Thats what I got out of this.

Certain fields are highly focused on certifications; a physician assistant is essentially nothing to start out, but can gain more and more importance as more certifications are added on. Nursing the same way. Engineering to a lesser degree.

My school did and UK schools all around

Than your UK schools are functionally disconnected with how businesses hire and operate.

[Deleted]

Everyone goes to High School, in most countries it is mandatory. What did you do to stand out?

Mostly due of my hobbies, I got a solid work placement. I usually done free-lance projects with friends, games development etc and this has built a solid portfolio. I will never acknowledge my high grades to my successes in life and the education from school is worthless judging from my own experience.

[Annoying]

In my country, when you complete an exam, you get a paper stating your grade and teachers in high schools are advised to tell their students "its a good paper that will give you a step ahead during the interview" which in reality, companies never ask for the "good paper"

Yeah, here it's "do you have a HS diploma or GED?" if the job only requires high school, that's all mostly. Beyond that, pretty much every job I applied to that required a college degree wanted a transcript.

[Auxora]

Grades in high school and your SAT/ACT scores determine where you can go to college, and the college you get a degree from does matter as far as entry level positions. To some degree I also think some employers have their favorite schools where they have a lot of employees that went there, and they tend to have an easier time getting their foot in the door. It can be an ice breaker in an interview to talk about the campus maybe that your interviewer or one of your interviewers attended.

But grades in college are a much lower factor than the degree itself, even in entry level. And after a few years they don't matter at all. At entry level, it would be a factor in rating a person how likely they are to learn the position and get up to speed. And getting through the entry level tier of positions is the big hurdle. Once you have 5 or 10 years in the workplace in salaried positions, with that experience finding other jobs is much easier and they probably won't even glance at your GPA in college.

[alzoron]

It sounds like you are trying to take your experiences in one field and apply it to everything. It may very well be that degrees and certifications and whatever are unimportant in your particular field but that doesn't mean that they're universally useless.

I'm guessing I'm not going to be getting a top biological research position anytime soon with just my hobbies and personality behind me.

[Deleted]

Certain fields are highly focused on certifications; a physician assistant is essentially nothing to start out, but can gain more and more importance as more certifications are added on. Nursing the same way. Engineering to a lesser degree.



Than your UK schools are functionally disconnected with how businesses hire and operate.

They are disconnected. I agree. Academic education and Real World business are two different things, our schools never prepared us, on how to act in an interview, rather they were happy to show us further education, the only skill I mastered was to remember stuff, haha.

[Very Tired]

Damn, 5 out of 13 interviews offered a job? That's pretty great.

But year, jobs are smart enough to know grades don't mean crap. (It helps since the employers probably went to college and personally know they don't mean crap) You're first job is entirely dependent on if they like your personality or not. They don't care if you got a 100% on that 4 month long project!

And even my professors admitted, no job will care about your college grades after your first job. It will be based entirely on job experience then.

So yeah, education system is pretty messed up. To much learning about nothing, not enough learning by doing. Has little to no value, but no one is going to change it.

[Deleted]

I really shouldn't respond to this. The level of stupidity here is too damn high. Its a power level of over 9,000. Its....Its....sigh.

BTW you need decent grades to get said "experience" in order to get a good job down the line. Unless you're talking about finding a job in the middle of nowhere that doesn't ask for a CV/resume.

Check the graduate un-employment rates.
You don't need good grades to gain experience, I stated for the 30th time now, no one asks for them. No one wants to see my grades, they ask regarding my previous experience, which was self taught based projects that I've done during my hobby.