Colin Beveridge's recent Thought for the Day: Caught out by Catch
2:1 generated an enormous e-mail response from CW360.com readers
who agreed that employers' demands for ever more academic
qualifications are counter-productive.
Read Colin Beveridge's piece>>Below are some of the views sent in by
readers.
My suspicion is that the goalposts are shifting faster than the
changes in technology, and for no reason other than the
availability of academic qualifications in subjects that were not
even being taught when the present generation of recruiters started
their jobs! It looks like just an excuse to cut down the number of
people eligible for interview and so save management time selecting
candidates.
Pat Mason
It appears that a 2:1 is merely an entry level requirement to
become an apprentice. Work your way up my boy/girl!
I believe most employers and recruitment agencies have simply
introduced a convenient and time-saving "sifting process" to reduce
selection, recruitment and interview costs.
This type of paper sift process reduces the opportunity for
employers to find people who are more suited to the job in question
- people with personality, ability, imagination and talent.
David Ross
Too many degrees within a project team are the cause of eight out
of 10 projects failing. IT is not difficult: the knowledge and
techniques are readily available with a reasonable level of
intelligence and some work.
An innovative attitude, leadership, the ability to work as part of
a team, and sheer bloodymindedness in finding a critical solution
are important. Going to university where the formation of character
is not on the agenda gives you none of these skills.
Requiring degrees for IT work is an ageism policy. We now have 40%
of school leavers taking further education and, therefore, degrees,
not the 10% when I was younger. Companies are missing out on the
stable and more conscientious older workers by insisting on all
department members having degrees.
Terry Carlin
While running a hardware/software helpdesk at one of my previous
employers, we employed a lot of contract workers to deal with
customer enquiries. One of the stipulations was a degree in a
computing subject. Out of the 20 people recruited, around three
were worth their wages.
It seems that in this day and age, qualifications are worth more
than experience and it seems sad that with the vast amount of
knowledge gained by people out there "in the field", more firms
aren't taking people on based on their real-life experience rather
than a piece of paper saying they've passed a course.
Dominic Stratten
Surely this problem is down to HRM (Hit & Run Management)
departments wanting an easy time.
Asking for a 2.1 quickly filters down a large pile of applicants to
a much smaller pile and makes their job so much easier. Whether
people with a 3rd or just some A levels could be trained to do the
job is a secondary consideration.
Morgan Rees
The majority of vacancies are advertised through agencies.
Thousands of people spend an awful lot of time and money in
obtaining qualifications. How much knowledge has the "recruitment
professional" of the buzzword skills that he is asking for, or is
he merely ticking boxes? Monkeys can be trained to do that!
One gets the feeling that there is a large element of "He's only
ever painted red, green and blue doors; we don't think he could
handle a yellow one."
Peter Hindley
There is sometimes a resistance towards fresh talent as a perceived
threat to the person in a position to offer a job. The people with
the power to make a job offer are sometimes looking not for skills
to fit the need but for people that they can rely on to pull the
legacy line.
Most managers do not have the time to 'update' their skills and as
new people come along they feel somewhat left behind and the
insecurity steps in to cloud their judgment. They do not want a new
person to come along and show up the weaknesses and cracks in their
system or even to make any improvements that would reflect a
deficiency of some sort in the established IT staff.
Khushal Kiran
I have paid good money for courses to prove my enthusiasm and
worth, in an attempt to secure an enjoyable and rewarding position
in IT. It is daunting to be faced with the increasing entry-level
requirements but refreshing that this may start to be publicly
recognised.
Grant Hammond
This is a major issue which the IT industry has seemingly chosen to
ignore. In an industry where there is a wealth of money and
investment and very high salaries, I've been reading for years that
there is a huge shortage of IT staff. Of course, companies want the
best - but everyone's got to start somewhere. We weren't all born
with Cisco routers under our arms and genius-level CCIE certs.
Companies could run mentoring and shadowing schemes, and even pay
people a decent wage - not 30K, but maybe 20K-plus - to live on
while they are learning if they sign binding contracts to stay for
the duration. Companies could go into or establish links with
training companies and recruit directly from them - even if it is a
short three-month work experience (paid - not loads, but don't be
stingy - people need to live!)
This can be done, so is anyone listening who's in a position to
implement this?
How many 2:1s with the right qualifications are out there anyway?
After they are all snapped up each year, how many IT jobs are there
still left to fill?
Kenneth Lim
There is far too much emphasis placed on paper
qualifications.
I graduated in 1996 with a 2:2 honours degree in Chemical
Engineering, and went from there to spend five years working long
hours as a technical consultant with Unisys - most of this time was
spent on customer sites.
When I was "downsized" last year, I was routinely passed over -
even for an interview - for most jobs I applied for, because I
didn't have an MSCE qualification. My five years' experience
appeared to count for nothing, as people seemed to be happy to take
on staff with an MSCE and little or no practical experience.
As it turns out, my current employers put me through a TechCheck
exam, where I scored in the 87th percentile worldwide for my main
area of knowledge, which is Windows NT, which I think further goes
to prove the futility of the certification paper chase for both
employers and employees alike.
Graham Simpson
I totally agree with your article but feel that the problem is a
lot worse than you say. Some employers are an arrogant lot
(especially in the IT world) and fail to equate experience and
results with "qualifications". An example: my sister is a project
manager with a major consultancy but works on internal projects.
She gets results and is the ideal character for the role.
However, when I mention that she should transfer to the PM practice
she says it's impossible as they only take people with degrees.
When will companies learn to look at the person and their
potential?
Paul Nicol
The problems are not just with traditional qualifications, but also
with vendor-specific accreditations. One can find oneself on the
Cisco, Microsoft or whatever treadmill of gaining new
certifications for this and that new technology, then the need to
recertify to stay current. The individual who wants to have a life
in addition to a demanding career ends up doing work and studying.
For what? Reduced job security, lowering salaries and benefits and
possibly burnout.
A lot of these vendor certifications do not necessarily mean you
will be any better at the job. In any case, the knowledge needed to
pass the exams is a catch-all and one may only need a fraction of
the skills covered in the real world. Yet one is putting oneself on
a never-ending treadmill of studying for often needless and
superfluous IT qualifications that can never replace experience or
good old plain training in necessary skills.
I say get a life, keep your wife and dump the hamster for a
dog!
Gary Marsh
I have been on both sides of the fence. When interviewing potential
staff, as important as the skills are: do they "fit" into the
organisation, culture, outlook, etc? On the other side of the
fence, when looking for a role one of the questions I ask is how
dogmatic is the company regarding the 2:1, (which I do not have)?
It appears not to be the barrier that it is seen as - it would
appear a large proportion of companies merely use it as a means of
sifting out those who, perhaps, do not have the character to press
on anyway.
John Robertson-McIsaac