09-25-2014, 12:42 PM
Had a hiring manager point out a few things to me on what he looks for when going through resumes. First off, academics, military, boy/girl scouts and others are separated into different piles. I'll stick to academics solely for this discussion of this post. Resumes in the academic pile is weighted on schools but only in highly skilled areas that are needed. Lawyers, ivy league or popular big name universities that specialize in this subject, a degree from anywhere else and your resume is tossed out, period! IT, a degree from MIT or a big name school that specializes in the field needed, anywhere else, then you better prove you know your stuff or your resume will be tossed. Engineering, popular big name tech school or your resume is tossed. See a pattern? The hiring manager will weigh your resume more—, academically, if he knows your school; and the company prefers to hire from certain schools in certain highly skilled fields because they know from previous hires the quality of student turnout from the desired school. If you are not applying for a highly skilled job position then a degree from a known school will weigh more than an unknown school. Why, risk! A company does not want to risk a bad investment on a school that is not known because they do not know what the quality of student output is. But, putting on your resume that you tested out of 90 - 100% of courses shows that you are very smart, creative and think out of the box; and you do not owe $100,00+ of student loan debt. These will earn big brownie points in the eyes of the hiring manager.