Hey Jonathan.

I've only hired a dozen or so folks in my day, so I may be way off base here.

I would see your 8yrs as trumping the need for a degree, but also probably 
being a bit of a drawback. I would think you were probably engrained in how you 
do things, and what solutions you would bring to the table. During the 
interview, I would look and listen hard for you to prove to me that you can 
think outside that 8yr box. The concern would be that this new hire would try 
to convert my department/division into their old job.

If that rings true on your end, may I suggest hitting github or bitbucket for 
some projects that interest you, but are also way off that 8yr beaten path. 
Pull the source code, study, build something with them, contribute to them, 
etc. Then in the interview, talk that stuff up as-much-as/more-than the 8yr 
job. The 8yrs speak for themselves, in my opinion.

Thanks.
- Timothy Humphrey




On Mar 26, 2014, at 11:42 AM, Jonathan Grotegut wrote:

> I've just recently started reading this thread, I have not read all of the
> responses.
> 
> I am curious though, with this discussion, if people have seen what I did
> when I last looked for a job.
> 
> While I was last looking for a job, after being laid off from the place I
> worked at for 8 years, it seemed
> to me that even though I had 11+ years of experience they ALWAYS went with
> someone with a degree
> over myself who doesn't have one.  It was extremely frustrating.
> 
> I really hate spending a large fortune on a degree just to have a "leg up"
> when searching for a job
> when I have so many years of "real world" experience.  Why as a hiring
> manager would you choose
> someone with a piece of paper that says they spent a ton of money on
> learning something, vs someone
> who has spent a TON of time learning on their own?
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 
> UPHPU mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://uphpu.org/mailman/listinfo/uphpu
> IRC: #uphpu on irc.freenode.net


_______________________________________________

UPHPU mailing list
[email protected]
http://uphpu.org/mailman/listinfo/uphpu
IRC: #uphpu on irc.freenode.net

Reply via email to