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Ask HN: Do employers care how long it took you to finish a degree?

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Re: Ask HN: Do employers care how long it took you to finish a degree?

#11

Post by poorman »

Depends where you try to work. Most employers are only going to care about how sell yourself as a potential asset to their company. In the end, the only thing that matters is your ability to perform your job.

PS. I have a *friend who took 6 years to graduate with a BA in CS and now works for an awesome startup, that also employees some great programmers who never went to college.

PPS. If you're in CS create a GitHub account to act as your portfolio. Work on some projects in college; that way you have something to show the employer when they ask "So what have you done?".

Re: Ask HN: Do employers care how long it took you to finish a degree?

#12

Post by dannypgh »

davismwfl wrote: post #8

Generally, no, employers don't care. When you list your degree just list the graduation date. Regardless of your work history, you should list internships and projects you accomplished while in school on your resume when you are starting out anyway (unless you were already employed in the field). And if anyone asks specifically, tell them, yea I took a little extra time to finish my degree. Never lie and don't deny i…

They really shouldn't be asking specifically. IANAL and I don't think most age discrimination protections kick in until you're 40, but that kind of question - or asking if you were a "non-traditional" student - seems like a roundabout way of asking someone's age, and is therefore quite unprofessional.

Re: Ask HN: Do employers care how long it took you to finish a degree?

#14

Post by chillaxtian »

just put your graduation date.

in my own experience (interviewed for internship, current full time position, and a few competing positions, and have interviewed many candidates):

i did not feel like my educational experience was taken into account when interviewing.

and when my coworkers and i interview candidates, education is almost never discussed.

the only reason i suggest omitting the start date is to get past HR filters.

Re: Ask HN: Do employers care how long it took you to finish a degree?

#16

Post by ebbv »

Some will, some won't. In all honesty I think you should be glad for the ones that will reject you based on that. It shows a toxic culture focused on things that aren't really important.

Much more important is where your degree is from as to whether it means anything.

You should have an answer prepared for why it took longer that is reasonable and doesn't reflect badly. I.e. "I failed classes and had to take them over." doesn't sound good. "I took a lighter class load so that I could work while going to school to lower my debt." sounds reasonable.

"Going through a lot of stuff" isn't good enough.

Re: Ask HN: Do employers care how long it took you to finish a degree?

#17

Post by ryporter »

They will if it's clear from your resume that you took 6+ years to graduate. It's a reasonable concern for an employer, since the cause is often different from yours (namely, lack of effort).

So, as other have suggested, don't make it obvious. It's ridiculous to see the year of high school graduation on a resume anyway. Also, you don't have to list internships from your first two years.

If it does come up, or if they ask about it, do not lie. The appearance of hiding anything is a red flag. Just tell them that you were dealing with personal issues, and that they are resolved now. So, it won't affect your ability to perform the job.

Re: Ask HN: Do employers care how long it took you to finish a degree?

#18

Post by chillaxtian »

poorman wrote: post #11

Depends where you try to work. Most employers are only going to care about how sell yourself as a potential asset to their company. In the end, the only thing that matters is your ability to perform your job. PS. I have a *friend who took 6 years to graduate with a BA in CS and now works for an awesome startup, that also employees some great programmers who never went to college. PPS. If you're in CS create a GitHub…

> PPS. If you're in CS create a GitHub account to act as your portfolio.

this is totally unnecessary.

no reasonable engineer that is asked to interview you will look at your github, or care if you have one.

Re: Ask HN: Do employers care how long it took you to finish a degree?

#19

Post by assemblyram »

I'd like to piggyback on this question with my own, which is relevant.

tl;dr: do employers care at what age you finish your degree?

Long story: I'm a 35 year old software engineer with 6 years of experience (mostly java/scala), currently an EU citizen residing in UK (London). I've studied CS when I was 18 at the universtiy, but dropped out (various reasons). Now since Brexit news I no longer feel I want to continue living here and I am strongly thinking of moving to USA. My plan is to get a Computer Science BsC from Open University in 3 years, apply for H1B visa/job and then later green card. I'm only doing my degree now because of H1B requirements, no other reasons. I would be 38 by the time I finish it.

Re: Ask HN: Do employers care how long it took you to finish a degree?

#20

Post by roel_v »

As most everyone says, no most interviewers won't care. In the small chance anyone ever asks why you took longer, just don't spin a whole sob story to explain. Just say 'personal circumstances' or so, very short and neutral, and quickly divert attention away to your GPA (if it stays good) to make it clear that it's not because you couldn't do the work.

I had an interviewee once who would try to explain everything that was remotely sub-optimal on his CV with long stories of how horrible his upbringing was and how hard he had it in life. I guess he was trying to get sympathy but all I heard was 'drama all around'. Now, being able to overcome adversity is a good thing in general, but there is a fine line between that and being desperate to blame everything on everyone else or emotionally blackmailing people.

So my advice, for what it's worth, is to not be seduced into giving long emotional explanations. Just say 'I had to work a full time job' or 'I had to finance myself' and leave it at that.

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