late day light \06.26\

late day light \06.26\

Posted by Lauren at 10:30 PM ✪ No comment yet

Each weekday morning the American Advertising Federation emails what they call a "Smart Brief" to their subscriber list.  Essentially, it's a recap of major and current advertising-related news.  I've been a subscriber since my undergraduate days and pay varying degrees of attention to the emails.  On a typical day, I skim the headlines and occasionally read a couple of the abstracts.  Once or twice a week, I actually click to read a full article.

Today I clicked on a headline, "Best Small Towns for Business in America", under the American Express Open Forum section.  I did a little light reading on how start-ups don't necessarily need to be located in urban meccas anymore, because of digital capabilities.  Skimmed through the list of cities that attract this crowd and why.  Then I checked out the "You might also like" article recommendations.

A mixture of curiosity and annoyance greeted me when I saw an article entitled "Don't Hire People Who Went to Grad School".  That seemed like a pretty unwarranted blanket statement.  Clearly my possession of a graduate degree can't be a disservice to my job search...right?  I read the woman's article and reserved judgment until the end (but I'll give you my opinion at the beginning).

Final verdict: I understand most of her arguments, but I don't agree with her assertion that "it's a decent bet to stay away from candidates with a graduate degree". Sure, some people do go to grad school just to put off real life for a few more semesters. On the other hand, some people really are just passionate about a field or learning in general, so they extend their education. These may also be the employees with an appetite for lifelong learning, always seeking to extend their skill set, ultimately becoming increasingly valuable to an organization. Again, point taken, there are a lot of graduate programs that are not structured in a way to successfully prime students for the professional environment. The same applies to undergraduate programs, though; should we tell employers to eschew Bachelor degrees also?

I can't speak to her arguments about MBA or law degrees, since I haven't personally been enrolled in either type of program. The points that she raises sound like great hard-hitting interview questions: Why did you spend $100,000 to learn about entrepreneurship rather than forming a start-up? Outside of your knowledge of case law, how have you accrued the requisite skills for forming a successful law practice? There's just no way I can buy into writing off a candidate with a graduate education before giving them a chance to demonstrate their value.

Stepping down from my soapbox now.