A curious thing about being over-educated, or at least over-educated in the liberal arts: it actually hurts your chances of getting a job. I don’t just mean you may not get a job at your level or in your field; I mean your degree can make it almost impossible to get any job. Even fast food jobs. Even jobs normally filled by high school dropouts with criminal records.
At this point, you are probably thinking that, since this is a humorous blog, I am using exaggeration for comedic effect. . . and I like to think it would be still be funny if I were. But guess what the really funny thing is: I don’t have to. It actually is close to impossible for someone with a doctorate to get a lower level job. Apparently, if we can’t find work in our fields we are supposed to sleep in cardboard boxes until we do, or until the student loan people repossess our boxes.
Case in point: a 16 year old without a high school education can get work in food service without great difficulty; I’ve seen it happen frequently. I have a doctorate, excellent references, and a solid work history, and I can’t get so much as an interview at Starbucks.
This seemed odd enough that I conducted an experiment:
Method
I found a company in my area that was hiring to fill two identical, entry-level positions at separate branches. I had exactly the work experience and other qualifications were asking for (they weren’t asking for much). I applied for both positions. Job #1 received a resume listing all my relevant work experience and all my degrees. Job #2 received a resume that only listed my lower level work and left off all my advanced degrees.
Results
Job #1 never responded. They didn’t even send me a “sorry- we hired someone else” email. I had to call them just to find out if they even received my resume, and call again to find out whether they had filled the position. Job #2 asked me to interview less than three days after I applied. After I interviewed, they recommended me for a manager position. (Update- they later found out that I had a doctorate and I never heard from them again).
Discussion
Apparently, being educated makes one a sort of employment leper. We wander the world hopelessly, with “Ph.D” branded on our resumes that all may know our shame and avoid contamination.
Maybe I should start using heavily redacted resumes.
