What lying about degrees reveals about an American employment obsession
September 17, 2008 By: almostgotit Category: Marilee Jones, academic degrees, lying, resume
Fantastic book for parents of
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Marilee Jones was the highly-esteemed dean of admissions at MIT until an anonymous tipster informed MIT that Jones had lied about her degree once upon a time, way back when she submitted her first resume for a low-level secretarial job that did not require a degree in the first place.
I obsessed about her downfall for weeks on this blog.
Yesterday’s story about the resignation of Lan-Lan Wang, the highly-accomplished dance professor who has also founded several dance companies, has made me think of Marilee once again.
And again, the downfall of a qualified person was brought down by an email “tip” about bogus academic degrees. What is really going on here?
Alison over at Ask A Manager fielded a question there on Monday from a person wondering if s/he should tattle on a coworker for misrepresenting her own qualifications, and Alison gave exactly the right answer: No.
Lies are rarely if ever acceptable, and lies on your resume will invariably bite you on the butt. Important note: don’t lie, and don’t ever lie on your resume.
But lying v. not lying is not my point here. Nor was it my point when I blogged about Marilee Jones. In fact, if anything, all of the noise lately about people who lie on their resumes, especially about their academic degrees, only illustrates what I believe is an even bigger problem in the current job market.
We all need to stop worshipping the Almighty Academic Degree.
An academic degree only maps a fairly specific set of accomplishments: it cannot and should not be used as a catch-all measurement of over-all talent, experience, and skill level. Much less a measurement of anyone’s essential value as a human being.
As a theoretical measure of teachability, academic degrees serve a bit better. However, a history of accomplishments in one’s actual field can and should be the best measure of all.
Full disclosure: my husband is a professor, and both he and I have academic degrees from top-tier institutions.
But a degree does not magically enable a person to invent Microsoft. Bill Gates, who never finished his own degree, was clearly the man for that job.
Nor did Marilee Jones become the best dean of admissions MIT ever had by getting a degree, and there is no degree in any case in “Dean of Admissions-ness.” She started at MIT as a secretary, and worked her way up the ladder in a fully-transparent process of ever-increasing accomplishment. Her experience was her credential, and everyone accepted it exactly as such.
I do believe that someone with an undergraduate liberal arts degree is going to be a better all-around job prospect — but not always, and not in any specific way.
Again: Bill. Gates.
I’m also willing to concede that a degree in physical therapy can be a value-add for someone wanting to be, oh I don’t know, a physical therapist.
However, I’ve seen many job advertisements that require applicants to have an advanced degree without even specifying why, or what that degree should be in. And I completely fail to see how a generic “advanced degree,” e.g., an online Masters Degree in basket weaving, better qualifies a person in a completely unrelated job, e.g., one in public relations.
What do you think? What is the proper place for an academic degree in today’s job market?
September 17th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Bravo!
It’s one of my pet peeves: Jobs that require college degrees for no apparent reason. Other than as a screening device, of course.
And now that getting a degree can put you in serious, long-term debt–that’s a dangerous combination. We have been conditioned to believe that having a degree is going to “guarantee” us a well-paying job. Is it a conspiracy? Well, no, but things have gotten seriously out of hand, imho.
Jobs such as office administration, human resources, hotel management, retail management, and for sure public relations—why do they require degrees? Really, why?
Thanks for the opportunity to rant! (I worked in PR for years; my degree was in political science.)
September 17th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Funny thing, college dance departments. Frankly, they are usually not very good (with some notable exceptions of course). Why? BECAUSE THEY ARE USUALLY STAFFED BY PEOPLE WITH MEANINGLESS DANCE OR DANCE PEDAGOGY DEGREES. When I was a snotty little performing arts school student in the 1970s, people who went to college to pursue dance degrees were thought to be pathetic in some way. Everybody knew that if you were really talented and accomplished, you didn’t go to college, for Pete’s sake—you joined a company right out of art school. Some of that has changed over time, and some schools have decent dance departments that offer additional training to those who need it before moving on to life as a professional dancer, although not so much in the world of classical ballet. But if you decided to pursue dance in a college program, would you rather have a non-degreed teacher who once danced for Mr. Balanchine at NYCB as your teacher, or Dr. Demi Plie, with lots of papers from some college or university somewhere? I will submit that the dance department head at Connecticut College is a chump.
To be sure, there are times when a degree is hugely important. If somebody plans to cut me open and remove or repair a body part, I would prefer that they have documentation proving that they obtained a degree in medicine beforehand. That’s absolutely proper in today’s job market.
I think you’re right on. You don’t need a degree to be a visionary, or even, sometimes, to be just really, really good at what you do, whether you’re Bill Gates or Mikhail Baryshnikov. (And I also thoroughly agree that a liberal arts degree is better and more useful for life beyond, because you will emerge knowing how to write—an essential skill, I believe.)
September 17th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Oooops…my own liberal arts degree fails me, just now. Noted redundancy in my sentence about Mr. Balanchine. Feel free to edit!
September 17th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
I totally agree. I got a Masters in Public Administration from an expensive university to help leapfrog me in my career, which it has done. However, the job-related skills I learned in that program were miniscule, I would have learned far more if I had just worked for those two years (but I believe the rules in the the city government where I live equate something like 5 years of work experience to a 2-years masters degree but I actually think the skills learned ratio is the other way around), and would have saved LOTS of money. There aren’t many scholarships for MPA students, so the degree reinforces whatever economic inequalities already exist by favoring those who can afford the degree (who then leapfrog over, for no good reason, people who can’t afford the degree).
September 17th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Ooooh, I’m glad you took on this aspect to it. I couldn’t agree more. Requiring a degree for most jobs has always seemed like the lazy way out to me — like it’s easier than actually, you know, evaluating candidates on their merits.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:52 am
So my Master’s in Underwater Basket Weaving isn’t going to open the doors they said it would?
Seriously though, I think my MS in computer science has been helpful getting jobs in my field. However, it seems that what impresses clients are IT certifications from Microsoft, Novell, etc., not college degrees.
Unfortunately, I don’t know of any degree that guarantees success as an author, except maybe a degree in being related to somebody who’s already successful …
September 18th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Great comments, all, and from recruiters, teachers and managers as well as professionals with advanced degrees of their own.
The fact that degrees cost so much money (thanks again, Dad) adds another disturbing level to the debate, as WG and David B. both correctly mention. Can’t afford a degree? Buy yourself a dialect coach instead. I have also found that the total accident of having the right acccent – I’m *not* from the South – has been remarkably powerful at times.
@ Dennis: well, *underwater* basket weaving, you should have said so sooner. An appropriately specialized degree such as yours will take you a long way, indeed. The computer science MS too, of course.
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:03 am
I have an MA in Classics (Latin and Greek) and have failed utterly. And not just in Academics, but at just about everything. No, everything.
There might be a lesson in this, but I’ve failed to learn it.
March 30th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Nondegreed people are considered flunkies
even if they have several post secondary diplomas from legit accredited schools.
There are a lot of interesting courses
going to waste because the are not
degree material. People have to study
things they don’t need. The emphasis on
The need to have a degree has led people
to use phony degrees or lie on their resume.
The job requires a degree and a person needs the job because of health insurance
And other benefits. An associates or a
two year diploma is the maximum we should impose on society