What do you think of ppl with multiple degrees/qualifications etc?

[lapitup]

What do you think of a person when you hear they have a more than average amount of degrees/postgrads/masters etc and qualifications?

Do you think...good for them,they must be smart,have ambition, drive etc!

Or.

Do you think...god could they not make their mind up and/or stick to something??

Depends. May be good from a career/earning POV, or not.
A sister of mine was married to a perpetual student who enjoyed his subject and evidently preferred doing further degrees to getting a job and earning money.

She eventually got sick of supporting him and they divorced.
And good riddance IMO.

I'd imagine the second and third degrees are funded by their employer so "having the money" doesn't come in to it?

A daughter of my mother’s friend just absolutely loves learning and keeps collecting degrees. She’s very bright and interesting but at 45 she really needs to leave home and earn herself her keep! Her 70+ parents are still financing her life. They are from the US and she eventually got a job with NASA which according to her was a bit shit so she gave it up and is back home.

I did an undergrad and post grad degree in architecture followed by a post graduate diploma.

These were essential for me to qualify as an architect and were paid for through student loans or by my employer.

I hope people don’t think they constitute a “delayed adolescence and a reluctance to grow up”

I don't really notice them - I know a few people with them, I find people who use their 'Letters' everywhere a bit pretentious and like they're trying to overcompensate for something, although I know that's likely unfair!

Depends, if they have paid back the loans and used for job roles I’d think they were a little flighty and couldn’t make up their minds but at least they keep trying.

If the don’t work much and don’t pay the loans back id assume they like the lifestyle of not having to do much.

I’m in agreement about not using the letters on things though unless needed for the job role.

@Smallsteps88

How are the people who’ve never worked funding all these degrees?

How do you know they've never worked??????????

I did my first degree like normal people age 18-21 then my employer paid for me to do one part time one day a week over 5 years!!!!! And I had to condense 5 days worth of work into 4 at the same time

"Delayed adolescence and a reluctance to grow up usually."

I'm not really sure I get this. How is a love of learning "a reluctance to grow up"? And no, I'm not someone with multiple degrees. I did do a science degree then go on to do nursing a few years after graduating. However I'm not really what you would class as someone with 'multiple degrees' ie 3/4 undergrads plus postgrads.

I would think they were a show off if they told me what qualifications they had in a real life situation.

As it happens I have a BA and a MA and multiple PgDips relating to my profession but unless you had interviewed me for a job you wouldn't know that. I get immensely irritated by people who state all their qualifications for no real reason and I think less of them.

If I just knew them well enough to know that they had studied for lots of qualifications I would just be envious that they had the time to do it.

Depends

If they're not related to one subject then I'd think flakey / trying to avoid growing up and getting a job - but that's just my experience of people who spent their whole 20's studying (badly) at different subjects with their parents footing the bill.

If an older person did a second degree to start a fresh career after years of work I'd have nothing but admiration.

I don't think anything as such. I know people with degrees and people without. I have one degree. I admit if my mental health was good and I had the money I would do more degrees but more hobby related. The one I have is one related to a profession so vocational really. I have found people with degrees etc both really interesting and dull and the same with people with no degrees!

Honestly, unless you are a serious scientist, I view people who've spent years on masters & phds as perpetual students who were delaying getting a job. I would not take the same view of someone who decided to do a PhD later on for personal fulfilment rather than expecting it to be useful on a graduate cv.

If not financed by employer I’d think they were someone with too much time and money on their hands.

I have one undergrad and 2 masters. All related to my field. Certainly not minted. I funded them all as a mature student while holding down a full time job

Im jealous!

It depends really, most of the time I think they must be quite academic or its following a path or in the same area

Occasionally you get someone who just does random degrees I think they are indecisive, and maybe a bit lazy

Most of the time I think they are rich tbh

Depends. If they do a degree and then go on to further their education as part of their career while they’re building the actual career then good on them.

But IME the people I know who have multiple degrees are in fact professional students who spend ten years at university studying one thing after another after another without going to work.

Perpetual student not suited to work.

Someone with drive and ambition

A brain the size of a planet

Privileged and clever enough to do it.

I’ve met all the above.

Nothing, in particular. I don't judge people by the qualifications they hold (unless I am using their professional services).

depends
scatter gun = flaky and (possibly) has something to hide
2 very different degrees or degrees that build up on another is ok.

I did my first round late teens/early 20s & just completed round 2 (BA then MA) mid to late 40s. Radical career change because if I'm going to be working until I'm 70 (which is highly likely the way the government is going), it's blooming well going to be doing something I really like. I highly recommend it by the way.

If the degrees are related, it's fine. No one has said otherwise on that score.

I do know a couple of 'scattergun' approach people and at least one of them was doing multiple degrees in different subject to avoid work. I will say that one of the scatterguns did a job related to one of their degrees eventually and did it well, although they didn't have the job when they did the degree.

There are people who wish to be the eternal student. Some combine it with work.

I assume that the OP wants to sign up for a radically different degree to her previous one(s)?

Why do ppl seem to think that you can't work and do a degree/phd???

MOST people work through phd, in fact everyone I know was PAID to do their Phd!

My employer paid for 2 of my qualifications...the others were free from government (well you know what I mean!)

Doing multiple degrees doesn’t mean you’re not also working!

I think you need to reread my question.

How do you know they've never worked??????????

Another one who needs to read.

Depends what they do with them.