Speaking as a hiring manager, I will absolutely notice any delays or interruptions in your education (unless ancient); in the event you don't give the years, it often becomes obvious when you list high school degree or summer jobs.
The key is to have a reasonable story about the situation. Finishing a liberal arts degree in five years after you spent the first four partying doesn't send a good message. Finishing a degree after taking a break to handle <other important responsibility - family, startup, etc> or as a consequence of a major change that helps employer? Not a significant issue....
When you build out your resume just list the year of graduation for your CS degree, which is standard. Don't include HS or other dates where they can see it took more than 4 if you're worried.
If they ask be honest and just indicate you worked your way through college, participated in this, lots of good reasons for taking more than 4 years.
Fortunately for me, I finished my degree much later in life than most folks. Pretty sure I could pass myself off as being at least 10 years younger than I am in a job hunt.
Though we could just normalize leaveing graduation dates off of resumes... I dont6think that is especially relevant for most jobs.
If I were hiring someone, I wouldn't think this was a big deal. Lots of people take more than four years to graduate from college for various reasons, e.g., financial or health problems.
The article makes it sound as if taking more than 6 years for a degree is a bad thing. I've been taking a long time to finish my undergrad, but I don't intend on just quitting. I will finally be graduating soon, but I've been going the slow route by taking a part-time course load each semester and working jobs that are very relevant to my field of study. I will graduate nearly debt-free and will already have a lot of really good experience on my resume. I agree that more students should be finishing their degrees, but I don't think taking more time then normal is detrimental if the reason is due to field experience (and not partying around).
It took me 9 years to finish my C.S. degree. I dropped out a few times and took time off. I was 27 when I finally finished. My GPA was horrible, so I don't list it.
All I list on my resume is my graduation date. I've never had anyone ask how long it took, why I didn't list the start date (probably because I looked older), or my age. My GPA has never been asked for either. Just don't talk about anything related to the time it took, GPA, age, anything.
When I graduated I had multiple job offers within the first month. No issues at all. The main thing they care about once you make it to the interview is that you know your shit and can talk to people.
I've never even asked in an interview and if they have more than 4 years on their resume I just assume they had a rough semester, or some other external factor.
My wife took 8 years to finish her MS because she did it part time. Does that mean she doesn't know her stuff? That's very far from the truth.
I'm not going to finish my C.S. degree in 4 years, it's going to take me a couple of years more. I'm not able to assist to all lectures and attend all exams because I've been going through a lot of stuff lately, so I haven't been (& am not) able to pass an academic year in a year. My gpa is still good.
I'm worried about being rejected for most applications in the future due to how long it took me to finish and I don't want to come off as whiny or anything in interviews, etc when interviewers ask me (if they do) why it took me so long.
So:
Do employers care how long it took you to finish a degree?
How important is to employers and interviewers?
Is there anything I can do to counteract it?
It took me nearly 7 years to finish my BS degree in CS. I took a couple of years off in the middle and then at the end I was working full time and taking part time classes.
I also took 7 years to finish my Master degree. I was working full time and only took a couple classes a year. I also took off a few semesters off when I had kids.
Nobody has ever asked about either situation. I wouldn't worry too much. As a hiring manager I've never cared about that.
If he's almost there I'd stick it out - But I don't think the OP said anything about time spent, just that he dropped out. Just re-read it and it states 4+ Yrs work experience - Not schooling. But yes, if that were the case I'd truck through it.
One of the few perks of not finishing your degree until much later is the fact that you can put that date on your resume and people assume you're younger. It's expensive, though, considering how much and how fast college tuition has been shooting up in price the past 15 years.
In my case it took over 16 years to get my degree. I think it worked out in my favor. If there is any age bias in the initial resume scan most reviewers will guess me being 12 years younger than I am. Once you are in a position , often the extra years give you a bit more gravitas then someone in their early 20s. Either way, what really counts is how excited you are about doing the work. If you love what you do, you should have no problem.
The other problem is one of lag. It takes 4-6 years between choosing a school/degree and applying for your first job. There may very well be a genuine shortage in your chosen field when you start college, but that is no guarantee that there will still be one when you start applying for jobs.
Time spent in university isn't usually seen as a gap. Most employers would admire that your chose to go back to school so you could really understand the fundamentals.
"The book's title refers to the fact that only 30% of students enrolled in liberal-arts colleges graduate in four years. Roughly 60% take at least six years to get their degrees. That may be fine with many schools, whose administrators see dollar signs in those extra semesters."
I took 5 years--I took a year off to work and replenish my bank account. No dollars accrued to the school by the delay. Other people switch majors and so take more than four.
Speaking as a hiring manager, I will absolutely notice any delays or interruptions in your education (unless ancient); in the event you don't give the years, it often becomes obvious when you list high school degree or summer jobs.
The key is to have a reasonable story about the situation. Finishing a liberal arts degree in five years after you spent the first four partying doesn't send a good message. Finishing a degree after taking a break to handle <other important responsibility - family, startup, etc> or as a consequence of a major change that helps employer? Not a significant issue....
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