Over-50: Those Advanced Academic Degrees on Your Resume

Employers Want to See Certfications, Licenses

What was once so valued in the late 20th century - those graduate and professional academic degrees - have become a downright liability in the 21st.

I date that shift to the time of the massive unemployment during The Great Recession. Back then, when you were knocked out of the box there remained a stigma about your state of unemployment. It was likely you weren’t getting back into that particular box. It was a cruel fate, but you were “damaged goods.”

So, all generations had to look at what got them in that box in the first place. Usually it was that MA in journalism, MBA or JD.

Back then I was primarily coaching lawyers who had been axed. It took a while, but they got it: Maybe they should eliminate the JD on the resumes. At least temporarily. With an average monthly payment of $700 on student loans due they had to find work and it was looking more and more like that work wasn’t going to be practicing law.

See, back then, in one day, law firm Latham had cut out over 400 jobs. Things were that bad. Incidentally, in contrast, newly voted in by the partners at law firm Paul Weiss Brad Karp was the hero of those worst of times. He adopted a no-layoff policy. Since that remains in-tact an aura hovers over the firm.

As their coach, because of ethical issues I couldn’t recommend leaving the JD off the resume. I still don’t. But I explained then and do now how those hiring tend to have these two mindsets:

They are not paying for credentials not directly applicable to the job.

So much formal education signals a flight risk. When the economy improves those smarties will be gone.

Most of those sagas of The Deleted JDs had okay endings. As anticipated, no, they didn't get back in at Latham when the recovery kicked in. But they were able to start new careers and go on from there.

That positive outcome is happening currently for some of those 50+ who were forced out. Just as the research by Pro Publica predicted, once you reach age 50 there is a more than 50 percent chance you will be terminated. And if in the atypical situation that you land another job in your field there is only a 10 percent shot at receiving comparable compensation.

Soon enough the Ah-Ha moment comes: “‘They,’ that is, those hiring, see me as overqualified and costing too much. Also, that I’m old.”

For years now The Economist has been warning that too many of those advanced academic degrees were not only a waste of money and time. They also could be a downright liability.

Once over-50 it’s tough enough to find work without the baggage of degrees which are not directly aligned with employers’ needs.

What is moving the dial on not only getting hired but launching whole new careers are certifications and licenses. Former corporate middle managers, for example, currently have reinvented themselves as auto mechanics, long distance truck drivers, directors of funeral homes, commercial real estate leasing agents and body massagers. Part of the reset was leaving those academic degrees off their credentials, with the exception of the BA/BS.

Overall, as I explain in an article published in O’Dwyer’s Public Relations, the over-50 should accept that they essentially are post-career or near that. While still holding on to what they got in terms of a good job they should be reflecting strategically about how to put together another way to make a good living.