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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?

#31

Post by paulsutter »

Beyond your first job, nobody will care. While interviewing for your first job, employers may ask. But it's not a big deal unless you make it a big deal.

Have a simple clear answer. Working to pay for school is a great reason. "Going through a lot of stuff" is a bad explanation, sounds like Jim Anchower[1].

Work experience (internships, part time programming jobs) are a great way to shift the focus from your school history to your work abilities. That's the reason nobody will care after your first job, they will just be asking about your work experience.

[1] http://www.theonion.com/blogpost/jim-anchower-is-one-smart-u...

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

#32

Post by mathattack »

If a political science major with a 2.0 gap spends 6 years going through a big state school - recruiters will assume they spent the time drinking. It won't hurt in a sales or politics job but perhaps elsewhere.

It won't hurt a smart CS major with a good GPA. When asked, say, "I self funded my education" or "I had to work" and that can even become a plus. (Just don't outright lie)

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

#33

Post by stuff4ben »

chillaxtian wrote: post #18
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.

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

yeah gonna have to disagree on this. I'm an engineer and work for a BigCo Enterprisey company and while it's not necessary, if you have a GH account, it makes my job easier when I interview you. Of course if you write terrible code, then the GH account probably is not the best thing to have. But other than that, I can't see a reason why not to have one. If you have one, I definitely look at it and I consider engineers who have one higher than those that don't. Doesn't mean that I won't rate you favorably if you really know what you're talking about, but it doesn't hurt.

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

#34

Post by Practicality »

chrisrhoden wrote: post #26
assemblyram wrote: post #19

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 l…

In your case, it seems unlikely to be an issue. In most circumstances, I think it would result in a few extra questions. Generally, a degree that comes after years of professional experience indicates a career switch, and those employees often need to work harder to find a good fit – usually, an organization that can make use of the skills they learned in the previous phase of their career. The reasons for this mostl…

I am getting my degree now and I've already been in work for 17 years. Why? Because I want to know the theory! :)

(My name relates to the part I know)

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

#35

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

It took me four years to finish my degree (normally it should take 3) and nobody has ever brought it up in the last three or four years (I gradueted in 2011).

Don't sweat it too much - most people understand you can be perfectly capable of doing the job without having adegree in CS. More to the point, a lot of programmers don't even get a CS degree and they still hold down very productive programming jobs.

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

#36

Post by Practicality »

_lbaq wrote: post #21
assemblyram wrote: post #19

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 l…

No, I think going back to school shows that your serious about your occupation, if anything, its a huge plus IMO

Right, I am actually going to school because I want to. I am already 34. I am learning at probably twice the speed I did when I was in my 20s, because now I've experienced what they are talking about.

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

#37

Post by valarauca1 »

Most employers (in the US) care first and foremost that you have a degree in your field. Not so much where you got it, or how long it took you to get it.

inb4 people start posting they don't. HN isn't a solid representative sample of the US let alone world job market.

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

#38

Post by chillaxtian »

stuff4ben wrote: post #33
chillaxtian wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> no reasonable engineer that is asked to interview you will look at your github, or care if you have one. yeah gonna have to disagree on this. I'm an engineer and work for a BigCo Enterprisey company and while it's not necessary, if you have a GH account, it makes my job easier when I interview you. Of course if you write terrible code, then the GH account probably is not the best thing to have. But other than that,…

> But other than that, I can't see a reason why not to have one.

you are assuming that

* they want to write code outside of working hours

* they will put the same level of attention into the code they write outside of work as they do the code they write at work

* they want the code they write outside of work to be open source

failing to do any or all of these things, or doing any or all of these things, should not affect a candidates impression on you.

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

#40

Post by basseq »

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…

> When you list your degree just list the graduation date.

This. I reviewed a ton of resumes, and even when I even noticed that total education time was "non-standard" (rarely), it didn't matter. It's easy as an employer to look at transcript and see if someone is slacking off or has other stuff going on. And the latter is probably a good think in terms of your commitment and drive.

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