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Here is an example of credential inflation for a job. I found this job on Indeed.com, but I am not showing the employer's name:
"Join a thriving startup in the heart of downtown Seattle! We are looking for a bright, fast learning data entry & customer support professional to join our team of high achieving professionals. If you consider yourself an overachiever or the most reliable person in a group project, you will fit right in."
Job Type: Contract
Salary: $14.00 to $15.00 /hour
Experience: Customer Service: 1 year (Required)
Education: Bachelor's (Required)
How could a job for "data entry & customer support" require a bachelor's degree? I can't see how such a basic job could require such a level of education, at such a low rate of pay.
Because a bachelors degree is entry level into the middle class. Yes, it was once a HS diploma. Now it is a four year college degree.
People can complain about it all they want, but there will be no return to "the good old days".
White collar middle class jobs are reserved for people with BA/BS degrees.
It also tells your employer that you are willing to learn more than is proscribed by law or parental pressure. College students have proven that they will do more than the minimum standards.
What I find so interesting how people look down their nose at clerical jobs, then find out they aren't even qualified for those jobs anyway.
I agree. Most clerical jobs do require a college degree today. They require interpersonal skills, social skills, communication skills and other soft skills that generally are conferred by a college degree.
Clerical workers are often the face of the company or organization that they represent.
Fifty years ago, many clerical workers attended secretarial school, where they were trained in office work, poise, proper grammar, etiquette, and interpersonal relations.
Secretarial schools were generally two years long. Today, for another two years, a prospective clerical worker or administrative assistant, may as well just obtain a college degree.
What I find so interesting how people look down their nose at clerical jobs, then find out they aren't even qualified for those jobs anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sheena12
I agree. Most clerical jobs do require a college degree today. They require interpersonal skills, social skills, communication skills and other soft skills that generally are conferred by a college degree.
Clerical workers are often the face of the company or organization that they represent.
Fifty years ago, many clerical workers attended secretarial school, where they were trained in office work, poise, proper grammar, etiquette, and interpersonal relations.
Secretarial schools were generally two years long. Today, for another two years, a prospective clerical worker or administrative assistant, may as well just obtain a college degree.
Most do.
[url]https://www.rd.com/advice/work-career/secretarial-school/[/url] - Interesting article about secretarial school in the 1950s.
ITA. Clerical work isn’t just filing, answering phones, and light typing. You need a broad range of skills, that vary widely, depending on the business. For example, a position might require a background in bookkeeping or inventory systems; if a candidate has no experience and no related coursework in those areas, they don’t have the basics to qualify for that position, degreed or not.
A few months ago, we opened up a temp position (6-12 month contract, data entry), but the first two temps, both fairly recent college grads, lasted only 1 day because they did not know Excel. How do you apply for a data entry position without knowing basic data entry software? The third candidate had worked with older version of Excel, so he at least had that foundational and only needed to familiarize himself with the updates.
Last edited by Ginge McFantaPants; 03-17-2018 at 08:14 AM..
Because today's bachelor degree is equal to high school degree 20 years ago. So, go figure.
Well, you either went to an insanely difficult high school 20 years ago or the worlds crappiest 4 year college recently, or both.
Students with current bachelors degrees still get into elite engineering, medical, and law schools, and become highly paid professionals, so I guess those bachelors programs are still doing their job.
degrees never set anyone apart, it was what they did during the time they spent getting the degree that made it meaningful and set them apart
today, to get a degree, people only need to turn in homework and do the extra credit... and graduate with a C grade average on a curved grading scale
I'm sorry, how old are you?
From the beginning of post-high school education through the 1980's a college degree meant a lot toward assuring a good job when you graduated. And it wasn't due to extracurricular activities or internships, either.
Of course, if you went to Harvard or Yale, you were assured success due to the fact that your family was already part of the elite, or your roommate's father was CFO of a Fortune 500 company.
If you graduated from Cal Tech or MIT, or dozens of other highly ranked schools, you had more offers than you could consider, and I'm pretty sure it is the same today.
Why bother applying for it when you work so hard for a degree to get pay this low? This work can be done from home and pay higher.
Paying your dues is why. I make a solid six figure salary now, and when I started out in IT, I made $13 an hour. Just needed someone to give me a job so I could start gathering experience, which is what matters in that particular world. I had a degree, 4.0 GPA, a couple Microsoft certs...and exactly ZERO real world experience. So first company to offer me a job won. $13 per hour.
Zero experience means low starting pay. Pay...your...dues. I did, so did all of my colleagues. All of us have at least undergrad degrees, and all of us started at low pay when we had zero experience.
Freaking entitlement thinking that a four year degree entitles you to a serious salary right out of the gate. Nonsense.
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