Job Hunt Series Part 3: Can You Have Too Many Degrees?

Thanks to the difficult and time-consuming nature of job hunting, many job hunters find themselves overwhelmed before even getting their employment search off the ground. In this series, we’ve split up the three major aspects of the job hunt into three parts. Part one discussed the importance of creating a successful resume by creating a new resumé for every job you apply for and modernizing your resume to include tech skills, among other helpful tips. Part two taught you how to use LinkedIn to its fullest potential by participating in Groups and Answers, filling out your profile, using keywords, and more. Now we’re ready for part three of our series, which is about deciding what kind of information you should put on your resume and LinkedIn profile to yield an ideal response.

The Question of Multiple Degrees

If you have a broad educational background but are focusing your job hunt around one field in particular, you’ve likely asked yourself: Should I include all my educational history on my resumé, LinkedIn account and other professional media, or should I edit it down for purposes of brevity? For example, say you hold degrees in both information technology and journalism. If you’re applying for IT positions, why would recruiters care about your journalism degree?

Although we mentioned earlier that it’s important to tailor your resume to the position you’re applying for, sometimes additional educational experience can actually give you the upper hand with recruiters. For example, a degree –or even just a minor–in a foreign language can increase your appeal for many companies because it means you can communicate with a broader audience domestically and even increase the company’s global outreach. As long as you can find some sort of relevance for your degree to the position at hand, it’s usually a good idea to reference it in your resumé and LinkedIn profile. However, be sure to directly state why this degree is beneficial to the specific position in question to ensure the recruiter correctly determines your value to the company.

What About Unfinished Degrees, Miscellaneous Courses and Unrelated Certifications?

Again, deciding whether or not to include certain aspects of your educational history and experience will depend on how well you can argue their relevance to the position. However, there are a few general factors to consider when it comes to certain types of educational achievements. First, there’s the question of unfinished degrees. Say you earned your bachelor’s degree at an educational institution and went on to graduate school for a year or two before deciding it wasn’t for you. This is schooling you wouldn’t want to go to waste, but will citing it help you or hurt you in your job hunt?

In this case, it’s usually best to only mention unfinished degrees if they’re highly relevant to the job you’re seeking without any explanations needed. Essentially, you’ll want to apply a higher standard to an incomplete degree than you would to a complete one. Miscellaneous courses can also be included in your resume and profile, but be sure to prioritize and avoid citing more than five. As far as unrelated certifications go, try to also limit how many you reference and only include the most relevant. Stick with the cut-off of five, but apply this restriction in conjunction with miscellaneous courses. For example, if you have three miscellaneous courses listed, only include the two most applicable ones to avoid going over the limit.

Moving on to the Job Hunt

Now that your resumé is as impressive as possible, your LinkedIn profile is a hotspot for recruiters and your educational information is carefully edited, you’re ready to move on to the job hunt with confidence. Although it may be more natural to blame external factors when the job hunt isn’t going our way, sometimes employing advanced strategies like the ones discussed in this series can be just what you need to reach your goal. So if the job hunt has you down, work on these three crucial elements to make the odds work in your favor.

Lindsey Harper Mac is a professional writer living in the Indianapolis area. She specializes in writing guest posts covering social media and education on behalf of American InterContinental University. Currently, Lindsey is completing work on her master’s degree.

Photo of Graduation certificates courtesy of Shutterstock