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??

I'm jealous. I wish I had the time and money to study for one degree.

I do wonder how people come to rack up a selection of degrees, to be honest. I mean, if it is for career purposes, why wouldn't you just undertake post graduate studies? Or, if it is simply for the love of learning in and of itself, why wouldn't you simply go about the business of studying your interest and feel the need to aquire a tangible qualification to mark that new knowledge? Sometimes, and this is one of the few occasions when this is something I would write here but not say out loud, I wonder if it's like a kind of conspicuous consumption of knowledge - if those people would even bother if they couldn't line up their degree trophies to display for all to see?

My husbands got three so I wouldn’t give it a second thought. It’s just somebody who did a degree when young then went into a different field for work and did another degree......

It's normal in my field to have two or three - normally an undergrad, then an MSc or two, occasionally a PhD, then professional qualifications such as diplomas or MBAs.

To be honest, it's very unusual to meet anybody who doesn't have any further qualifications after an undergraduate degree.

Depends on context. A string of related degrees with a specific goal in mind, utterly impressed and a little awed at their dedication.

Multiple degrees varying in nature but never employed. Peter Pan wannabe who doesn't want to grow up and join the real world.

Degrees earned whilst working, I admire their love of learning and desire to gain something more from their job/life.

I would think, wow, they must really have had a lot of support and encouragement. I wish I'd had that and I'm gonna give the opportunity to my kids if they want to take them up.

I know a couple of people who did this so my pool of experience is quite small.

A girl I went to school with did a degree, a masters, then another degree. Her wealthy parents funded it all. They were quite strict/ religious and I got the sense that they wanted her to be respectably busy but the plan was for her to marry well so there was no point in starting an actual job (especially as she might have had to mix with common folk - gasp!). She did then train as a primary school teacher but only worked for a year before she did indeed marry well and gave it up.

The other is my SIL. She's quite clever and has got three degrees (again parents financially supported her with each). Has never had a job but likes to talk about the amazing jobs she could get if she did ever fancy working. She is actually very nice but has a really warped sense of reality!

My OH has three degrees ie BSc, PhD and MA, and various other bits and pieces.

He's needed to it for promotions but also because he enjoys studying Me, not so much!

@LavenderSatin

I have 4 degrees so I await the answers with interest

What are your degrees and how long did it take you to get them? (and how much money?) I'm asking as I have the bog-standard one degree, and 3 years was enough, thank you!

My, some of the people here have a chip on their shoulder. I’ve got a BA that I did from school, and an MSc linked to my then job. In the next job I did a degree-level professional qualification and a further qualification in the same field, at Masters level. I’m lucky in that I got support from my employer - but my employer also expected me to do these. They were hard work.

I have a undergrad degree and 2 masters in related feilds. I did one after graduating and another when I wanted to change my job.

I'd think they were boasting online unnecessarily

I agree scattergun means flaky afraid of getting out in job market and having a career other than “student”

But when I mean people whose degrees have a logic to them, I think well done. For example, many science degrees go well with an MBA if you are not in academia teaching. Also, I met a person who had an MBA and a doctorate in contract law- they did negotiations for multi-billion international contracts and were constantly head hunted because they knew whatever they negotiated was legal without needing to run provisional agreements past a legal advisor. Another combination I thought was impressive was a person who is a qualified architect and an archaeologist. They do restorations conservation of historic and ancient buildings.

I have a doctorate in pissing on chips obvs

When people say they have two degrees, what do they mean?

ie 2 bachelors of arts, or a BA and MA?

If two normal degrees how did they get the second one - who paid, when??

Those tend to be my thoughts.

Mind you, I have a degree and three accountancy qualifications.

It does appear the Employer Paid route is the way that many seem to do it, especially those employed in the Public Sector. Which is fine by me as is all the ways people have done their own degree accumulation.

I'm really pleased that post-Grad Loans are more available now, I definitely would have continued to Masters or more specifically the MRes/Phd place Exeter offered to me if I could have added the Masters Fees to my Student Loan in 2003-05.

I gave up looking and just went for self-funded OU MSc in the hope I could get some +3 Phd Funding after I got my Msc.

Unfortunately I had to pgDip out as all my focus had to go to ds (asd) although my grades were good. The specific research area and hypotheses outlined in my Proposal of 2003 are still yet to be explored - as probably are many other Research Proposals lost during those underfunded post-grad student times.

Good for them, can't imagine the debt!

I dropped out of uni due to a cheating fiancé and a bad choice of degree subject. Got a partial exemption from HNC and then did professional exams from the RIC, later the RSC as a means of getting a degree-level qualification. By then I was married to a chemist and it took him a year to find another job and we had to move 50 miles. So, needed to do something else. Like many biochem, physics, chemistry graduates went into IT. Could never remember knowing so little about chemistry as I did about It, so did BCS exams. With part I and the work I did got membership, and if still in the field would be a chartered engineer. Equivalent to a degree. However, was made redundant in a recession, and mindful of aptitude tests I'd done at 21/22 started at the bottom with a training contract with a firm of accountants

So in summary GRSC (temporary grade so no longer current, couldn't proceed to C Chem, MRSC due to lack of experience) , CITP, MBCS, FCA.

But, apart from periods of unemployment while temping, I've worked since I was 20.

Often the need to maintain an income leads to a complete change of career which can leave you feeling you need the theory to underpin the practical. When working in database design, admin and support my job was so technical other people couldn't understand it. I found an old CV the other day, and was hard put to understand it. At the time it was a piece of piss and no big deal, except for making conversation difficult at the hairdressers, but better than when I worked with radioactive sewage

Some people enjoy being eternal students, and just don't want to get a proper job 😂

Some people need a lot of qualifications for their dream job

I have two undergraduate and one postgraduate. Essential for my role nowadays. Not an eternal student. Second and postgraduate were obtained whilst working and postgraduate also whilst raising children.

No tuition fees for first degree. Postgraduate was paid for.

I recruit for a masters course and when we get applications from people who already have 2 masters degrees I tend to turn them down because we want people who are passionate about the subject, not degree collectors.

Depends. I know someone who is an eternal student with multiple qualifications in a variety of unrelated fields. However they have never actually used any of them in gainful employment. Rather they drift from course to course, subsidised by their parents and now by their partner. I look at them quite differently to how I see someone who has gained serial qualifications in the same field or someone who has had a career change and is well qualified in couple of fields.

What’s an average amount? I’m 31 and have 5 degree level qualifications so far, currently studying for my 6th and am waiting a scholarship approval for my 7th. That might seem excessive but I don’t know. One of my friends is only a year older and she’s already studying for her 9th degree level qualification.

Impressive, but why and how can you afford them? (I have 2 degrees)

lots of time on their hands. Completing a masters is more about time and money than it is about intelligence

That’s me screwed then, I’m just starting my dissertation year and I’m a single parent with 2 jobs. Oh and I have 2 bachelors degrees, a PgCert and a PgDip all in different subjects so I guess that makes me ‘flighty’ too but that’s fine with me, I’ve never been the type that could have done the same job for my entire working life

I have an undergrad, masters and doctorate. It was a necessary route to get to my chosen career. I have a student loan from undergrad, self-funded masters whilst working full time and then did a paid / funded doctorate.

I do know people who have studied English lit, medicine (never practiced) then physio therapy. They must have big student loans to pay back!