WTF! Why do you need a degree for customer service???

[Dogonthebed]

I’m not outing any company particularly, I am talking generally. I have no intention of naming names but it’s a growing trend for jobs advertising salaries £20’000 - £25’000 a year, stating pref a degree!

I have had many varied roles through my life always working up to supervisor and managerial level through hard graft and giving my all. It doesn’t matter what you do for a living from cleaning toilets to being GM, my work ethic will always be the same, you are paid to do a job to the best of your abilities. It is a contract between yourself and employer.

Yet…. I can’t get even a customer service job interview apparently because I don’t have a degree! I have run telesales teams, Legal Offices, Legal Cashiering! I took a break to look after my ASD child during the Pandemic and now can’t even get to the next stage!
If I had a degree I wouldn’t be applying for entry level roles! RAH !!!!! I have life and work experience, proven competency from being promoted.
anyone else?

In the 80s the large company I worked for would require their marketing employees to have a degree. A 2:2 would be fine. After Blairs revolution to get 50% of the population to Uni, the requirement to get a marketing job increased. If you didn't have a 1st, you wouldn't get an interview. I started my career as an A level management trainee at one of the main supermarkets. Now a degree is required. All Blair did was reduce youth unemployment and make them pay their own way with student loans instead of claiming the dole.

"Pref" isn't mandatory, just a preference that you can ignore. Apply anyway and see how it goes. Lots of people don't include their degree in the CV past a certain age, and managers will be more interested in experience. If they ask if you have a degree, turn it round saying "I have 10 years of relevant experience instead"'. Good luck!

I saw this last time I was job hunting. Worrying trend.

I would apply regardless op.

I dont remember the exact quote, but basically not having the required skills or qualifications only stops women from applying, men apply regardless.

I think the problem is more ageism. They prefer a 20 something for an entry level role, not someone 45. You can apply even without a degree, it’s just preferable. I bet someone 45 with a degree has the same outcome with being rejected.

Honestly, @Dogonthebed dont take that dreadful advice to lie on your CV. I would never suggest doing that, it's not necessary.

Although it's massively frustrating not to secure a role you can do standing on your head with your eyes closed, stay true and accurate, but check your CV to make sure there are no telltale signs of age and sex. You shouldn't need to do this by rights, but even with the Equality Act (2010) in place, recruiters are still silently discriminatory, so you need to take away their chance to be so.

list the qualifications and CPD you have but without dates (you can always evidence those when you get your foot in the door).
no need to include a photo
Highlight your best roles, really bring out your experience and expertise and take out any irrelevant info to keep your CV brief but impactful.
add a personal statement of 2-3 lines max, which tell them who you are: committed, enthusiastic, skilled and experienced, used to working under pressure to meet deadlines etc. what value add are you bringing to the role.

give them every reason to add you to their Yes pile and not their No pile.

it's soul destroying to be rejected but keep going, it really is a numbers game.

I know Mumsnet don’t like people saying they look younger than they do but I do. people have always been very surprised at my age (hated it when I was a teen who looked like an 11 year old though!) and I still get ID’d…so when I was 32 I got hired for a PR agency entry level job. I had cut down on some of cv and avoided dates of my undergrad and I had just graduated from my MSc.

They blatantly thought I was early to mid 20s like all the other new starts did and were . The HR person looked at me like a ghost when I brought my passport in the first day and kept staring at the date of birth page and then up at me. I think she kept it to herself though because the managers tried to take the piss out of me and treat me like all the other fairly timid 24 years olds.

I raised a health & safety complaint and other complaints after 4 months with them only to get fired the next week for no discernible reason (obviously it was the complaint ) .

When I appealed the decision with them which I had to do before going to ACAS, they made a comment that someone with my experience would have been better suited for somewhere else and I could see they now all knew. And they were blatantly ageist.

I was actually planning to leave the job at the 6 month mark and had already been applying for jobs so it worked out quite well for me - they didn’t have a leg to stand on and I negotiated 8K settlement from them and started a new job the next month.

I also negotiated an agreed reference with them as part of the settlement and their first draft of it listed my date of birth alongside my name. I told the ACAS conciliator to tell them to remove it which she backed me up on it so they did.

It was like they didn’t want any other employers “tricked” into thinking they were hiring a gullible young person as opposed to a hardened 30 year old 😂

it’s NONE of employers business what age I am so if I ‘fool’ employers, more power to me - they shouldn’t be ageist anyway!

Apply anyway

That’s ridiculous! It’s discrimination really when it’s not a genuine requirement. Good HR teams should be pushing for degree to only be included when required

Apply anyway. In the current climate there is a shortage of applications. If you meet the other criteria you may well be considered.

I work in admin and they started asking for a degree for my role about 10 years ago (I don’t have one but have worked there for 15 years so before it became a requirement). In the last 2 years this has been dropped! We really struggle to recruit now and the job is reasonably paid for the work. The candidates are just not there at the moment.

Yeah this!

If you're old then you put that you did a degree in some bullshit subject at some now non-existent polytechnic in 1989 and who the fuck is gonna check?

I would apply regardless. I do a lot of recruiting for this type of role for a large global company and we really struggle to get good capable people with experience. Honestly couldn’t give a toss about a degree or not!

*Tangled123
I have a degree but have never been asked to prove it for a job. For a retail job, I would just lie about it. Like you say, it isn’t required.

Yeah this!

If you're old then you put that you did a degree in some bullshit subject at some now non-existent polytechnic in 1989 and who the fuck is gonna check?

I've never been asked to prove I had a degree either.

I must say I've never seen customer service jobs requiring a degree. It is stupid thing to request without it being more specific or relevant in some way to the job, as degrees, and quality, varies so much.

Slightly off topic. A friend was doing very well in her career, it was suggested she applied to join their management training route. But then, because she didn't have GCSE maths at grade C she couldn't apply. What she did have was Grade One O Level maths. She had to do GCSE maths at night school for a year (at her own expense) in order to get a GCSE qualification, before she could be considered. She got A* in the end.

But what a pointless waste of time and money.

That's so idiotic of them to request. I'd have challenged that as they are considered equivalent and are accepted at HE level (even higher standard than the GCSE).

What a waste of time and money!