Really interesting- especially for me as a new graduate! I get the sense that there’s a move away from asking about what degree you have and more of a focus on the work you have done. I guess my experience with this would be that even in interviews for post-grad positions interviewers aren’t interested really in your degree, but ask much more about what you’ve done alongside getting a degree! I’m sure in more traditionally academic subjects this might be less true but I’ve definitely found that…very interested in your 3am afterparty chat

We love this discussion! What do you guys think- Zarir 'Zed' Vakil, Duncan Dalzel-Job, Pete Domican, Emma Jelley, Cara de Lange, Conrad Young, Nika Talbot, Joanne Webster, Darryl Howes, Ben Legg, Vic Mistry, Scott Leishman, Mark Cliffe, @donaboussy, @sinead-mccann, Damien, Tim Walters, Ph.D., Mitch Bradford, Phoebe Train, Michael Bateson

So true, nobody ever asked me about mine although I suppose they were mostly a pre-requisite for university entry. This discussion brings to mind an initiative/service that a friend and I have been talking about launching. The service would help students (maybe around 15/16 years old) to create their own websites. These sites would house the work and achievements that they accumulate over the years so that when they finish school or enter the job market they have a nicely packaged ’CV of the future’ which includes essays, designs, articles, design work and so much more. They can then show this off as a more functional ’skill based’ reason for employers to hire them than a few A, B, C letters relating to how well they can remember facts for exams.

I’ve never been asked about A levels at all. No one has ever asked me much about my first degree either but that’s probably because I did Physics and they didn’t want to get into a discussion on quantum theory! I have however been asked and still am about Durham, which college I went to and who I knew.

I’ve only ever used my degree directly once when, early on in my career, I was summoned to the site manager’s office to a meeting of senior managers and asked to solve a problem his son had been set for school homework because they’d not been able to do it. Didn’t do my career any harm.

Like Peter, I’ve never had to use or state my qualifications, even in my early career transitions these seem to be taken as read from my CV. The only time I had to quantify anything regarding how I used these, was when it came to questions in building budgets by having to correct peoples ability to understand that you can’t have more than 100% of something!!! I don’t know what they teach youngsters today, but maybe that’s just me

they’ve NEVER come up for me either, great question. To be honest, I find friends of mine who didn’t go to university have some really interesting careers and no debt 😀

Very interesting discussion. I’ve only ever had one full background check when I worked for a high end fashion house, they thoroughly checked my credentials (I studied fashion at CSM). Apart from that one role, I’ve never been asked for any of my school exam results or degree credentials.

Being an engineer, people do check. They don’t want bridges falling down

I have never been asked for any qualifications during an interview. they are on my CV, and most companies have background-checked me for ”perm” roles but never for consultancy/independent.

When I did hire people, I always did a background check. This gives quite a lot of information on a candidate and verifies their Identity, CV, qualifications and credetials. I have removed the offer in one or 2 cases as their qualifications/credentials did not stack up.

Loving this reflection – totally hear the 3am need for Philosophy!

I think my exam results merely proved that I was able to focus, learn and regugitate information effetively, which suits some minds but not others. That long ago now, I don’t even have it on my CV – I’ve learned so much since I don’t think it is an indication of my abilities now!