Degree creep- when will it stop?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does "overqualified" actually mean "we don't want to pay you what your education and/or experience demands"?

Sort of... More like "we don't want to pay more for your education and experience that aren't required to do this job."

[Anonymous]

And I've seen some with masters who think just because they have one, they should be in charge WITHOUT any experience

As with any degree, it doesn't guarantee a high paying job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does "overqualified" actually mean "we don't want to pay you what your education and/or experience demands"?

Sort of... More like "we don't want to pay more for your education and experience that aren't required to do this job."

It also comes with a side of "we think you'll keep looking for a higher-paying job even once we hire you so we don't really want to make the investment."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PhD has become the next masters in a lot of hard sciences like chemistry and biology.

+1000
Actually a PhD is worse in these fields since it puts people in the overqualified category.

THIS IS ME, RIGHT NOW.

I was recently told I am "woefully over-qualified" for a job that would've been an excellent fit.

Or is that just a polite way of saying I think the only thing you are good at is going to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a phd in the humanities and am looking at applying for program coordination jobs and the like. I refuse to adjunct, need a regular schedule and benefits. There are so few positions outside academia that value that kind of training.

I'm not familiar with a PhD program that provides actual training. What's your doctorate in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work at a non-profit. I see a lot of people with masters degrees getting hired for $40-50K/year. It's not required for the job, I think they just didn't realize that they would be starting in the exact same place as if they had just started working after undergrad. Honestly they would be paid more if they had 2-3 years of experience rather than an advanced degree.

+one million. In my experience, job experience is much more valuable than degrees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work at a non-profit. I see a lot of people with masters degrees getting hired for $40-50K/year. It's not required for the job, I think they just didn't realize that they would be starting in the exact same place as if they had just started working after undergrad. Honestly they would be paid more if they had 2-3 years of experience rather than an advanced degree.

+one million. In my experience, job experience is much more valuable than degrees.

How does one get experience when they wont even hire you without a degree?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does "overqualified" actually mean "we don't want to pay you what your education and/or experience demands"?

Or were not looking to hire a princess who thinks they are too educated to get into the weeds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work at a non-profit. I see a lot of people with masters degrees getting hired for $40-50K/year. It's not required for the job, I think they just didn't realize that they would be starting in the exact same place as if they had just started working after undergrad. Honestly they would be paid more if they had 2-3 years of experience rather than an advanced degree.

+one million. In my experience, job experience is much more valuable than degrees.

How does one get experience when they wont even hire you without a degree?

You need an undergraduate degree, but for many nonprofit jobs, a Masters without experience is useless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a phd in the humanities and am looking at applying for program coordination jobs and the like. I refuse to adjunct, need a regular schedule and benefits. There are so few positions outside academia that value that kind of training.

I'm not familiar with a PhD program that provides actual training. What's your doctorate in?

A lot of universities have paid research positions that provide actual jobs for doctoral students. Sure, it's not quite the "real world" but it is a job in their field. The humanities field is another problem altogether. If you don't want a job in academia, what on earth did you think you'd be doing with your expensive degree?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work at a non-profit. I see a lot of people with masters degrees getting hired for $40-50K/year. It's not required for the job, I think they just didn't realize that they would be starting in the exact same place as if they had just started working after undergrad. Honestly they would be paid more if they had 2-3 years of experience rather than an advanced degree.

+one million. In my experience, job experience is much more valuable than degrees.

How does one get experience when they wont even hire you without a degree?

You need an undergraduate degree, but for many nonprofit jobs, a Masters without experience is useless.

I work for a non-profit as well. I was hired with just an undergrad over two candidates with Masters. My boss wanted experience. Had the other candidates had experience AND the Masters, one of the two would have probobly received the offer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a phd in the humanities and am looking at applying for program coordination jobs and the like. I refuse to adjunct, need a regular schedule and benefits. There are so few positions outside academia that value that kind of training.

I'm not familiar with a PhD program that provides actual training. What's your doctorate in?

Not humanities, but in the hard sciences. In school, I had research assistant positions. They were real experience: obtaining and processing data, analyzing results, etc. I had expertise to put on my result which allowed me to obtain employment / my first job.

[Anonymous]

It won't stop. The more accessible formal education is, the less valuable it is on the market. Supply and demand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It won't stop. The more accessible formal education is, the less valuable it is on the market. Supply and demand.

plus 1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The PhD has become the next masters in a lot of hard sciences like chemistry and biology.

+1000
Actually a PhD is worse in these fields since it puts people in the overqualified category.


THIS IS ME, RIGHT NOW.

I was recently told I am "woefully over-qualified" for a job that would've been an excellent fit.

Sort of. It's a catch 22--super hard to get a job right out of a PhD (way harder than bachelors or masters), but if you want to progress in your career, eventually you need one. I was talking to someone in business development from a large biotech company, and they said that even though it technically doesn't require a PhD, everyone on their business development team has one. At some point to have credibility in management you need a PhD. Same for a lot of other careers like editorial jobs, the more technical areas of patent law, and some policy jobs. So frustrating. It's much easier to get a job with a bachelors/masters, but then you are stuck there.