A degree in what?? (Is your degree worth the paper that it's written on?)

Member Name: IanPaterson

Product:	Is your degree worth the paper that it's written on?
Date:	21/09/00 (34 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Diverse knowledge base

Disadvantages: Far to confusing!

I have never attended university, but I do have to interview prospective employess of graduate calibre for some vacancies. This is the opinion of someone who has to assess the capability of someone sitting in front of them for a job.

My first 'graduate' interviewing was about three years ago. The vacancy was for a system administrator and programmer. A whole stack of CV's turned up from candidates with a different degree listed on each one.

I had no idea from the titles of these degrees what they were and had to send off for a degree course 'bible' from a local university. What turned up were two telephone directories! About four inches thick A-M in one and N-Z in the other! I could not believe it. Every page had extremely fine print detailing what each course comprised of. It must have taken me a week just to find out which degree was actually relevant to the job advertised.

I am not knocking ANYONE for persuing higher education and give the respect due to anyone struggling on the poverty line to persue qualifications. But, where oh where do they think up these courses? Why do we need so many?

They confuse me and my colleagues who also have to interview in other departments for graduates. To be honest, we even AVOID advertising for graduates due to the fact that it is so hard to decipher what they have been studying.

I can only attribute this to the state of education in this country and it must be a nightmare trying to choose the right course for what you want to study. I can honestly tell you it is a nightmare trying to pick a graduate without pouring over huge directories of degree courses in this country!

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