A few weeks ago, I had a coffee catch-up meeting with a long-time client. He was downsized last fall for the first time in his career and I invited him to coffee to find out how his search was going. As the barista made our lattes, he said he had taken his MBA off his resume for some of his submissions. I am never a fan of dumbing down resumes but I wanted to know his reasoning and I wanted to know what other people thought.
He told me that for one of the recent positions he had applied for, his networking contact had said that only the president in the company had an MBA and the contact thought he should remove it when he applied there. He did. Even with that explanation, I wasn’t comfortable. Part of me thought that maybe the president would appreciate someone else who had spent time improving his educational background. So I decided to crowd s0urce the question on LinkedIn and Facebook. Here is the question and some of the answers.
I totally agree with the crowd sourcing results, you don’t need to overemphasize your education by putting all your credentials by your name but deleting a degree just to get the job is not a good idea and you need to think hard and long before you wipe out your credentials or dumb down your resume.
I don’t know how I missed this, but I too agree with the consensus!
Thanks, Ed, I didn’t use Twitter, and the original question was posed in early June but I’m glad you agree.
Remember to look at the requirements for th position and that is what should go in your resume. We tend to think that some of our accomplishments would be well received, in most cases it is not. When things that are not asked for don’t add them in;in most cases the person is viewed as over qualified. For example, if the job does not require a Master’s Degree, then it should not be added.
Thanks for your comment, Patrice. The dialog about this question continued on LinkedIn with some of the top career professionals. We all agree that you should tailor your resume to fit the position. Being overqualified is a common problem in this economy but most agreed that degrees should remain. Definitely an interesting dilemma.
[...] I crowd-sourced again on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook to give you feedback from resume writers, career professionals, and job seekers who understand [...]