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.
Make sure it’s from a university that no longer exists or went out of business. That way they can’t properly verify.
No. Put real world examples of your work. Homelab shit, word some shit you did for friends or family as work experience. Anything that isn’t just an outright lie.
Just to help make you feel a bit better about your job hunt, I finally got a position with AWS after some 6 years of actively sending out applications and resumes to anyone and everyone. In the end what got me the job (I think) is real experience and good understanding of the basics needed for my position. No real experience in my new role but a lot of related experiences in previous. Also a lot of practice with Amazon’s STAR method of story telling, it really helps lay down the information that interviewers want to get out of you, even if they aren’t Amazon.
It also doesn’t hurt to find and get certifications! There’s quite a few out there and can be gotten fairly easily and cheaply (and some not so cheaply lol)
A lot of companies check references and certs.
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.
yeah just work until youre 50. easy.
30+years is enough reason for them to check.
Sure why not. Business lie by saying they need someone with 5 years experience in a junior role but will happily take someone without.
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
In this job marlet, if you’re not lying, you’re not trying.
Go for it. In the world of IT, people networking, experience, and certs are more useful than a degree. Degrees might get you past the HR screening, but the others get you the job.
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?
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.
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.
Depending on the company this is exactly the argument I’m favor of lying about a degree: the hiring manager doesn’t care, and HR is checking a box.
Whether or not it’s a “good” idea in terms of efficacy is probably based on too many unknowns. It’s all a crapshoot anyway in terms of the random shit that a resume can be filtered for.
Depends on how well staffed HR is. Big multi national company? Fuck yeah they are checking every box. Cory who does HR alone and watches the front desk while Betty is at lunch? No fucking way.
And HR by definition must act like a total asshole almost no matter what the situation is.
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?
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)
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.
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.
