I’m applying for sysadmin type jobs and feel a lack of degree is holding me back. Should I simply lie? Can’t see most employers actually checking on a degree I would have earned 30+ years ago.
Fuck that- I had to run away from home at 16- never graduated high school, never graduated college.
I’m a senior software engineer now. Just make sure you can do the work, make sure you can teach yourself anything. Fight and advocate for yourself, not all of us were dealt good cards in life.
HR screening dumps resumes without a school unfortunately. Good hiring managers and recruiters don’t do that.
This makes me wonder how I got through the cracks…
Personally, I was hired on the recommendation of friends, and more lately had a manager who looked past it and saw my experience.
I’ve also heard about some horror stories out of Asia that look at high school grades never mind the degree. Wouldn’t want to work for that kind of company myself.
I’ve already been in the industry, but it’s really not feasible at this time to get decent jobs without degrees I feel… The competition has really increased in the last few years and with AI putting pressure on everyone it’s only gotten worse. I’m pivoting to a field that’s not susceptible to idiots replacing me with a bad machine.
This makes me worry about being terminated. My previous job searches have been successful so is it just the industry is terrible now? Last job search was 3 years ago.
I have projects and certs on my resume
Tech hiring is pretty fucked right now
Well my employer is currently eating shit and letting people go so yippee. Survived the initial purge though
If they check, they’re checking databases that would have that info despite being 30+ years old.
If they check, they’ll know.
No. They will check. I have no degree and got a senior level position with a major company. If you have 30 years of valid experience then that is far more valuable than a degree.
30+years is enough reason for them to check.
Totally depends where you are. If you apply at my work place you will need to send your graduation certificate with your application, which you would need to fake. And I would not recommend to do that, as it can get you intro a lot of trouble.
If you’re gonna try a stunt like that, you might say that you graduated from ITT Tech, which closed in 2016…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITT_Technical_Institute
Good luck on your job search 🤞
Or if you’re looking to fluff experience, pick a company that closed down. Who they gonna call, the Ghostbusters?
4 of my previous employers have either gone bankrupt or represent a different agency and I feel like if someone looked over my resume right now they would automatically assume I was lying. Or cursed.
Def cursed lol.
Edit: even your instance is shutting down. You sure you arent?
Well at least I can charge people money to weaponize my curse. Any enemies you want me to stand around and curse?
Certs and experience are more important for sysadmin type jobs anyway. Besides, if the company values a degree more than your experience, would you really want to work there?
If it’s a larger corporation, then you might get fired later no matter what, if it comes out. HR policy might require it.
If it’s a smaller corporation, it probably isn’t necessary.
I wouldn’t chance it.
I just started a new job and I had to dig up a copy of my high school diploma as part of the background check. Ridiculous? Yes. But also, they just outsource to a third party company to verify everything. And that company doesn’t seem to actually do what they’re paid for and they just kicked back all of the work to me.
In any case, I agree with the comments that you shouldn’t need a degree. I’ve been a manager in tech for a long time, including 10 years at Google, and have a lot of experience hiring. I don’t have a college degree. And once someone had work experience, I never paid any attention to their education. Lying about it is only going to risk getting caught.
Question about this since I’ve never been asked - they asked for a photo copy of your diploma? I landed my tech job without them even checking or asking for my college diploma, let alone my high school diploma (both of which I would be willing, but it’s strange to me)
Sorry I took forever to answer this.
None of my previous jobs (including Google) checked references at all. They may have done a criminal background check, I don’t remember.
This latest one outsources their background check to a company that I’m sure charges them tons of money to do very little. I was disappointed to see from their web site that they are selling their use of AI to screen people. So that’s great.
But anyway, yes, what happened was that I had to fill out a form on the third party web site and give them a bunch of information - driver’s license, SSN, but also education, previous employers, job titles, manager’s names, etc. Then a few days later I got an email from the HR person at my new job telling me the third party company was unable to verify any of the information, so could I please send them a copy of my diploma, a letter from my former employer, etc. Basically I had to do all the legwork that they paid for, apart from checking a few databases to confirm I’m not a felon.
Definitely not. If one company checks, it could impact your prospects at other places in your area.
Second others on the experience and certs, certs, certs. These are what got me
Tailoring your resume to the job description and asking good questions in interviews goes a long way in my experience, as well. E.g. “what would you most value?” (referring to certs, knowledge) and “how can I be a better candidate?”
If it’s a company I want to be working for, they’re going to be hiring for attitude above all. Otherwise, if they’re looking for someone plug-and-play they’re desperate to hire, and may be understaffed or facing other internal difficulties.
Might be off topic, but sometimes in life you just have to lie. I lied to an animal rescue about my references so I can adopt a cat.
I’m just thinking like: Bruh, why do you think I want a cat? I have no friends lol
I can’t really say if there are degree filters in my company’s recruiting process, but I do know if they get far enough to reach the technical interview stage and I’m part of the interview panel, we don’t really care if the applicant has a degree or not. What we look at is experience and knowledge/skills. I wouldn’t recommend lying because HR does perform background checks.
And HR by definition must act like a total asshole almost no matter what the situation is.
depends if they will check or not, most wont check. they look at your experience that matters, the double edged sword is most employers are looking with ton of experience from the get-go, and are too lazy to train people.
of course you shouldn’t why tf would you even consider this
way too risky
In this job marlet, if you’re not lying, you’re not trying.
Everyone’s experience is different, I will say that nobody has checked me and I have a job that usually requires it. My degrees are in a box somewhere, I haven’t pulled the out in a while, just a reminder of the money I had to spend.
