3 ms·

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

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 it just be straight about it but don't go into personal details. When you are in college all the pressure and focus is around your GPA, graduating whether you were in the engineering school or A&S school etc. When hiring, those factors are never as important as your ability to sell yourself. For companies that focus on your GPA or how long it took you to get through school, I'd be very critical of whether they are looking for the right candidates and whether I'd want to be there. That said, there are some tech companies that have extremely competitive new grad hiring and so they use school, GPA and degree as a filter, but I've never seen length of time to attain the degree a factor. Good luck!

dannypgh 10y ago
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.
- SmellTheGlove 10y ago
  It depends. If someone discloses to me on their resume that it took 8 years to get a bachelors, meaning they put 2000-2008 next to that line item, it's fair for me to ask about it. Besides, professional or not, you want them to ask it if they're inclined to ask it. Not because it's information for them, but because it's information for you. A candidate interviews the company as much as the company interviews them, and from my perspective as a candidate I want to know if these things matter to them and why. For instance, there are qualities I appreciate about non-traditional students - people who started college late, worked full time through, etc. I'm not trying to figure out if you're 45 or not. I'm looking for positive qualities, not trying to shake out the negative. I can distill the negatives when we talk about experience, and those have nothing to do with age or anything else. Beyond that, when I'm interviewing someone, I know I can't or shouldn't ask certain things, and I don't want to make people uncomfortable or break any laws. So I will often casually mention that I'm married or have a kid if the opportunity arises while we make small talk. I never tie it to a follow up question either, because that's too close to the line for me. But I'm not trying to figure out your situation there either. I'm just putting it out there that I have a life outside of here, that I'm probably going to sneak out (very) early every so often, work from home sometimes to get some other non-work stuff done too, etc. and that I won't hold it against you for being a normal person either.
  - a_small_island 10y ago
    >Beyond that, when I'm interviewing someone, I know I can't or shouldn't ask certain things, and I don't want to make people uncomfortable or break any laws. So I will often casually mention that I'm married or have a kid if the opportunity arises while we make small talk. I never tie it to a follow up question either, because that's too close to the line for me. But I'm not trying to figure out your situation there either. I'm just putting it out there that I have a life outside of here, that I'm probably going to sneak out (very) early every so often, work from home sometimes to get some other non-work stuff done too, etc. and that I won't hold it against you for being a normal person either. This is a strange thought process. It's illegal to ask about kids/relationship status and you apparently know that. You just attempt to fish for that information because you want them to know that _you_ personally WFH and have non-work stuff in your life? Why not just describe that work culture? Seems like you are trying to find out if they have kids or a wife, otherwise I don't understand the reasoning.
    - SmellTheGlove 10y ago
      I'm not sure that I described it well in my post, but I don't try and fish for that information whatsoever. I don't ask any questions related to it, but I'm not shy about my own situation either if it comes up in conversation. These days many people are coached not to really ask about work life balance or to bring up anything that would prevent them from being a 100% dedicated, 24/7 employee, and I think that's pretty shitty. I can't really ask about their needs there in a way that makes me comfortable asking it, so if the conversation goes that way, I'll describe my own situation without any follow up questions. Every company and every manager out there tries to sell people on their great company culture and work-life balance. I actually have one. I actively cultivate that internally and set team boundaries that promote having a life outside of here. It's important (to me) that candidates know that we actually do what we say we do in terms of work life balance.
basseq 10y ago
> 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.
- dvtv75 10y ago
  It's reassuring to hear this. I graduated in 2006, having started my Bachelor in 2000, beca8use it turns out that I have a pretty severe neurological disability. I've had much trouble finding a full-time job (one interview started screaming at me after I explained that I have a disability, but was most impressed with me up until that point) and one of my acquaintances explained that it was because I got a degree. First, he told me that running mail/web/file servers at home show I can do it and haven't just followed an online tutorial but by doing my degree, anybody could have done my work. Then he explained that the length of time that I took to complete the degree was going to stop anybody hiring me. Later, I was told that it was fair to expect that no employer would hire me, there's no legal restriction preventing them from telling me to get lost because of my disability. Obviously the first and last were wrong, but this is the first time I've heard an employer actually saying they don't really care how long it took to get the degree.
  - SerLava 10y ago
    >(one interview started screaming at me after I explained that I have a disability, but was most impressed with me up until that point) What the hell? Do you mind going into detail?

dannypgh 10y ago

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.

SmellTheGlove 10y ago
It depends. If someone discloses to me on their resume that it took 8 years to get a bachelors, meaning they put 2000-2008 next to that line item, it's fair for me to ask about it. Besides, professional or not, you want them to ask it if they're inclined to ask it. Not because it's information for them, but because it's information for you. A candidate interviews the company as much as the company interviews them, and from my perspective as a candidate I want to know if these things matter to them and why. For instance, there are qualities I appreciate about non-traditional students - people who started college late, worked full time through, etc. I'm not trying to figure out if you're 45 or not. I'm looking for positive qualities, not trying to shake out the negative. I can distill the negatives when we talk about experience, and those have nothing to do with age or anything else. Beyond that, when I'm interviewing someone, I know I can't or shouldn't ask certain things, and I don't want to make people uncomfortable or break any laws. So I will often casually mention that I'm married or have a kid if the opportunity arises while we make small talk. I never tie it to a follow up question either, because that's too close to the line for me. But I'm not trying to figure out your situation there either. I'm just putting it out there that I have a life outside of here, that I'm probably going to sneak out (very) early every so often, work from home sometimes to get some other non-work stuff done too, etc. and that I won't hold it against you for being a normal person either.
- a_small_island 10y ago
  >Beyond that, when I'm interviewing someone, I know I can't or shouldn't ask certain things, and I don't want to make people uncomfortable or break any laws. So I will often casually mention that I'm married or have a kid if the opportunity arises while we make small talk. I never tie it to a follow up question either, because that's too close to the line for me. But I'm not trying to figure out your situation there either. I'm just putting it out there that I have a life outside of here, that I'm probably going to sneak out (very) early every so often, work from home sometimes to get some other non-work stuff done too, etc. and that I won't hold it against you for being a normal person either. This is a strange thought process. It's illegal to ask about kids/relationship status and you apparently know that. You just attempt to fish for that information because you want them to know that _you_ personally WFH and have non-work stuff in your life? Why not just describe that work culture? Seems like you are trying to find out if they have kids or a wife, otherwise I don't understand the reasoning.
  - SmellTheGlove 10y ago
    I'm not sure that I described it well in my post, but I don't try and fish for that information whatsoever. I don't ask any questions related to it, but I'm not shy about my own situation either if it comes up in conversation. These days many people are coached not to really ask about work life balance or to bring up anything that would prevent them from being a 100% dedicated, 24/7 employee, and I think that's pretty shitty. I can't really ask about their needs there in a way that makes me comfortable asking it, so if the conversation goes that way, I'll describe my own situation without any follow up questions. Every company and every manager out there tries to sell people on their great company culture and work-life balance. I actually have one. I actively cultivate that internally and set team boundaries that promote having a life outside of here. It's important (to me) that candidates know that we actually do what we say we do in terms of work life balance.

basseq 10y ago

> 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.

dvtv75 10y ago
It's reassuring to hear this. I graduated in 2006, having started my Bachelor in 2000, beca8use it turns out that I have a pretty severe neurological disability. I've had much trouble finding a full-time job (one interview started screaming at me after I explained that I have a disability, but was most impressed with me up until that point) and one of my acquaintances explained that it was because I got a degree. First, he told me that running mail/web/file servers at home show I can do it and haven't just followed an online tutorial but by doing my degree, anybody could have done my work. Then he explained that the length of time that I took to complete the degree was going to stop anybody hiring me. Later, I was told that it was fair to expect that no employer would hire me, there's no legal restriction preventing them from telling me to get lost because of my disability. Obviously the first and last were wrong, but this is the first time I've heard an employer actually saying they don't really care how long it took to get the degree.
- SerLava 10y ago
  >(one interview started screaming at me after I explained that I have a disability, but was most impressed with me up until that point) What the hell? Do you mind going into detail?