http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1164797.html?menu=news.quirkies

Must be something to do with lack of experiance perhaps?

it's about the same as my experiance trying to get a job... I've got a whole rack of GCSE's and a GNVQ, I've got A levels, and I'm on the 2nd year of my degree and totally ACED my first year... and it's took me MONTHS to land a regulally part time job...

now i'm starting on the 15th November working for the Home Office... how interesting.. lol... but its money and I need money desperatly... least I have a year placement next year... currently applying to all sorts of computer related companies :)

Not really - I've had a similar problem - a lot of employers look at the CV and just say 'your over-qualified'. Whether this is due to them thinking that an 'over-qualified' person won't stick with a job or they are just scared of having employees smarter than they are (not that you can tell this from qualifications!) I don't know...

Hiya,

Would have to agree that qualifications have become less important over the years. I've got 9 good O levels (1977), 4 good A Levels (1979) an Honours Science Degree (1982) and a Masters (1995). Most of which has been as useful as a chocolate fireguard in getting me work. :)

I get almost all of my work due to my experience, and even my very first job out of university I got on the back of my hobbies rather than qualifications.

I do feel that part of the problem today is due to employers (rightly or wrongly) seeing a lot of qualifications obtained by people recently as being irrelevant or of 'low grade'.

A couple of years ago I interviewed a number of Computer Science graduates for some development jobs for a Sheffield company. Decent (on paper) degrees but the knowledge of teh wider issues in IT and general ability with problem solving skills, written english and arithmetic was very poor indeed. Also, some what had been taught on the degree, even the stuff that was obviously there to try and make the degree 'relevant' to employers, was pretty poor. We're talking people who couldn't explain basic concepts, here, not rocket science or usiness specific knowledge.

I'd make full use of any extra-curricular but relevant skills and talents you've acquired or used in your spare time activities, until you get a good set of experiences from your jobs. And keep a diary of skills acquired and tasks carried out as part of your job. Your own personal development record.

Joe

Originally posted by JoePritchard
I'd make full use of any extra-curricular but relevant skills and talents you've acquired or used in your spare time activities, until you get a good set of experiences from your jobs. And keep a diary of skills acquired and tasks carried out as part of your job. Your own personal development record.

Joe

well thankfully my IT skills aren't just from my degree, so when I go into the big bad world hopefully I'll have a bit more luck... I have been using computers since I was 9 years old, unlike half the dimwits on my course I know what a command prompt is, and the basics of programming and system design and development... y'know if you can't tell what type of loop you need (for, while, case? if? until...) then you really shouldn't be on a programming course unless you intend to pull your thumb out your arse!

and my Uni (Hallam) is trying to make us keep a PDP (personal development portfolio) to do what you said Joe, in some ways its a good idea, but it does seem like a waste of time right now... but I've still done SOME work in it, even if it is very little

when i graduated i was of the opinion that my degree got me to an interview, and after that it was down to me.
Now (4 years later) it's my experience that gets me an interview and it's down to me afterwards.

Although i passed everything at school, i would not say i left with good grades so i went to college for a few years and got myself a City and Guilds in joinery and carpentry. When i left college i found my c+g was about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike. To this day i still have not got a joinery job because any job worth it's salt want's people with experience. I fear my boat has sailed:(.

I must admit I found my work experience got me much further when I left uni then my degree did. Although my degree did include a compulsory amount of independent work experience (28days) most of my coursemates completed only this much. I decided that the knowledge I got from volunteering in a related job was as important as the knowledge I got from my degree, and carried on for 2years. It was this exerience that got me my main job when i got out of uni, and my willingness to go out of my way to learn new skills (whilst at uni and since) that got me my other 2 temporary summer jobs working for the university.
Qualifications do only go so far, ultimately most of them just show you can learn enough to pass an exam, experience shows you are willing to do the job!

There is no way I would have got where I am today with decent qualifications! No chance!

If I'd gone on to university and got a degree, I would have finished up with a career instead of learning about the different aspects of life.

Having worked in sectors such as printing, retail, engineering, laundering and radiography amongst other things, I wouldn't have turned out to be the pleasantly interesting, street cred person, great social comentator and fine intellectual writer that I am today.