Does a 2:1 degree really matter?

The recent news reports about employers ignoring graduate job applicants who did not receive at least a 2:1 has left me very frustrated.

I remember well the period of time after I completed university and was looking for my first professional position. It was also during a recession and getting a foot in the door was particularly challenging considering the numbers of laid-off employees seeking jobs.

I met with several potential employers and head hunters during that time. And the question which most commonly arose was: “Do you have any prior experience?” While I tried to put together a list of my volunteer experience and university work-placements, it sounded very hollow to my ear.

On one hand it was a lot less expensive to hire a keen new graduate but on the other hand, it was a lot more labour intensive to train one -- and in turn, more risky. I was an unknown commodity despite all my letters of recommendation and my excellent academic results.

Within a few months I did find a great job that gave me the lots of opportunities to use my head and develop new skills. But in truth, most of what I learned in university never really entered into the picture.

The graduates with the highest scores do not necessarily make the best employees. While they are well trained in reading the material and learning it, they do not necessarily have a “feel” for business or the ability to connect what at first glance seem to be many disconnected dots. While it never hurts to be a good student, the skills necessary for school learning are rarely the same as those needed to survive and succeed in the real world.

I once had a boss who said that there was nothing new under the sun. At the time I thought that was an incredibly cynical attitude. Today I understand that adage differently. There IS nothing new under the sun but there are always different ways to approach old problems. And yesterday’s solutions may not be the best responses today.

The most useful skills that I have learned over the past two decades are the ability to think outside the box, the ability to turn easily and head in a different direction that I thought I was going to take, and the ability to not get bogged down with the “that’s the way it’s done” approach. And all of those skills have nothing to do with school and in-house learning.

And at the end of the day, there is nothing like hard work to get ahead. There are no easy formulas for success. There is an old joke in MBA programs: A students will be senior managers, B students will be middle managers and C students will own the company!

Elizabeth Mead
Liverpool