@KV. Do you have a blog. I’d love to get in touch with you about your success. Congrats man!~

I don’t have a degree. I have a GED. I wasn’t a dropout, but I was homeschooled and wanted something “official”. As you might guess, I’m not exactly promoting my formal education.

I do apply for jobs that say they require a bachelor’s degree, and sometimes jobs that ask for experience I don’t yet have. I also occasionally hire people for short projects.

Mr. Chartrand, in my experience, is right. I used to send out piles and piles of fairly generic responses to job postings, with my resume and targeted writing samples attached. I think I was hired for maybe 5% of these. That’s out of perhaps 200 applications.

Every now and then, a certain job posting looked like something I *really* wanted to do, but wasn’t really qualified for. For these, I took a different approach. To be honest, I tossed back a drink and “let it all hang out”. No, really.

I sent out rather informal, friendly “cover letters”. I included my resume and general interest writing samples. Not targeted samples, because most of these were jobs writing in an area I find personally interesting but haven’t written for before.

Out of 22 clients, I landed… (wait for it)

100%. No kidding.

I couldn’t demonstrate experience in the areas I was asked to write for. I certainly don’t have a relevant degree. What I was able to do was let my personality show and write something memorable.

On the hiring end, well…

Being easy to work with counts for a lot. I have hired people who were skilled, but inflexible, and I’ve hired people who had few skills but were eager to learn. I’ll happily go the extra mile for the latter group.

–K

A degree proves that you have dedication, ability to learn, self-discipline, aren’t afraid of hard work and know how to pursue goals as well as meet deadlines. To me as a businessperson who does hire others, that’s valuable.

However, I’ve seen people come to me with degrees under their belt and they can’t string a sentence together. That’s scary. The degree itself does not prove (to me) that you’re a good writer.

(If you’re a doctor, you bet I want to see diplomas on your wall!)

Now, also, if I post a job that has a degree as a requirement, I *expect* people who apply to have the degree. If they don’t, they shouldn’t apply, or they should have equivalent experience that makes up for it.

Therefore, these people are all on even playing ground where the diploma is concerned. I don’t have a choice *but* to look to other factors. What other factors will help me distinguish who’s best for the job if the requirements to get the job DONE, at its basic level, are all met?

I do agree that highlighting skills is important – but skills come from far more than just a piece of paper, don’t you think?

I won’t lie, I haven’t been in the hiring seat. But I have had a lot of conversations with professionals in my region and they espouse the benefits of having a degree. Is it all rhetoric? No. In my opinion a degree means you’ve spent years researching, writing, following deadlines, pursuing group projects, and all across a spectrum of differnt subjects. I don’t think a degree gives you the right to lord it over potential employers, and Jonathan is right, you need to choose which skills you’ll highlight for each application. But I still stand by a degree as a key differentiator.

Looking forward to your reply

I’ll go find info. on how to put attitude and punch into the resume, e-mails, and how to pitch properly while still trying to sound/be original.

Thanks.

@ Kimberly –

Would you still recommend applying to gigs where they say they want a freelancer with a degree, and you don’t have one?

Yes. I don’t have a degree – and I think I’m the perfect example of why degrees don’t matter. BUT! I will say that if you don’t have a degree and that is one of the requirements, you’d better have something else spectacular to make up for the hole.

@ Allan – Well, there was an interesting thought that came to mind while reading your comment.

Many freelancers tend to say, “I think companies do this; I think companies choose that.” I get that. We all make assumptions based on what we know.

But I think that unless people have literally been in the hirer’s position, have literally had to choose between applicants for a job, perhaps our thoughts of what we think to be true may not be real?

What if you felt diplomas were key differentiators – but they weren’t? (You may have been a hirer at one time; I have no idea. Just using the example.) What would you use to choose? What if everyone had the required diploma? Who would you pick then?

I have a Commerce degree with a Marketing specialization, and a law degree. You can bet I’m going to mention and highlight the Commerce one every time I apply to a business or marketing related writing job.

Similarly, I always point out the law degree when I’m applying for legal writing work.

I’d say there’s no hard-and-fast rule. If you’re applying for jobs where your degrees have no relevance, sure – leave them off. Otherwise, if you don’t mention them, you may sway the hiring company’s opinion towards someone who does.

However, when you’re talking sales pitch, the format doesn’t follow resume styles at all. It’s one thing to show your qualifications (resume) and another to convince someone to hire you (pitch).

When convincing someone faced with 500 other applicants, all with resumes and credentials, you have to be able to answer the question, “Why should I hire you?” That’s where diplomas aren’t going to do you an ounce of good, because all buyers want to know is how you’ll change their life