Moving jobs without a degree

[BrieAndChilli]

I have worked my way up in my current company from admin to account management but when I look at equivalent jobs elsewhere they all require experience (which I have) but also specify a degree.

I dropped out of uni in my 2nd year for personal reasons 9rather than flunking out). I'm now in my 40s with 3 kids hurtling towards their own uni years.

any recruitment specialists able to tell me if it is vital to have a degree so I need to try and study part time to get a degree (which will take years and money I dont have!!) before I can move any further or if experience and other achievements would be enough?

Not a recruitment consultant, but many companies will count relevant experience in lieu of a degree. The difficulty might be where the applications are auto sorted (i.e. not looked at by a human initially) and degree is set up as a mandatory requirement.

My DH does not have a degree and has never had issues moving jobs based on his experience alone.

You should also remember that some mandatory criteria are more mandatory than others :)

I've usually seen degree or relevant experience required, not both. I have a degree but it is in no way related to the job I do. And was a barely scraped pass. Definitely still worth applying.

I don't have a degree and it's never held me back - I've got 20 years of experience to back me up.

The thing I remind myself is : women tend to apply if they meet 100% of the criteria, but men apply at 70% - this is a good occasion to think like a man.

Don't let not having the degree stop you applying. Have you considered getting the formal qualification via OU? It might put you in a better position when negotiating a salary in the future.

Well, today I’ve been given a promotion. Been sent the job description to sign and under other qualifications it lists degree.
thing is I started here 6 years ago as an admin/accounts assistant but started as a temp so didn’t formally apply and then was offered a permenant job and then was promoted to account executive.

I do pay student loan as PAYE as I did go to uni but dropped out and I have talked about uni days as part of casual chit chat so now am worried that obviously they think I have a degree. I’ve never said I have a degree but probably haven’t really said I dropped out either.

im hoping it’s not a dealbreaker as I fulfill ALL the other criteria and having worked there for 6 years I’m hoping that my proven performance is enough!

DH said don’t say anything but I feel if I sign it and then it comes out later it will be worse.

If you've been given the promotion, not asked to apply for it, then I don't see any problem. However, it might be a really good opportunity to see if you can get some support from your company towards completing your degree.

Although you "don't have a degree", it is likely enough that you can get some credits from the time you did spend at university, towards completing a qualification there or somewhere else. Contacting the Open university would be a great idea.

Decades ago, my mother dropped out of university after 2 years (couldn't afford to stay on, family not being supportive). She was actually put through a graduate diploma course by the company she worked with, even though she wasn't strictly a graduate. Later she moved to Australia and eventually completed a degree there, with credits from her original study in the UK.

Good luck continuing to progress your career!

Had a chat and all ok - promotion is based on recent experience and performance to negates the need for degree that they would expect external candidates to have. Can now enjoy the promotion!