<p>I want more hours, and the economy isn’t that friendly for that at the moment, but a lot of employers don’t want to take college students.</p>
<p>My strategy is not to mention that I’m going back to school in the fall at all, and come the first day of classes (I’ll give some advance notice) I’ll just say that I enrolled myself in school or something. (I won’t have to tell them I go to UVA and they’ll think I’m going to community college or something.) </p>
<p>Will my New England accent in Virginia give me away that I’m a UVA student? Or being Asian in Charlottesville? This sounds a bit extreme I know, but it’s just that I’m wasting time in my apartment, I’ve studied orgo to death and I’ll do anything possible to get extra hours. Also, some of my references know that I’m a UVA student – I guess that’ll be a problem?</p>
<p>It’s Monday, a whole bunch of jobs just got posted, including some Unicru ones – I love those now because I know how to pass the test with flying colours and I always get callbacks if the posting isn’t just for some emergency pool. Employers seem to get deterred by my student status though (that, and maybe they think they make poorer workers because they’re not “keepin it real”). </p>
<p>I feel it would be a real waste to suddenly drop all my achievements at UVA though … I have 81 credits, with 30 from APs, 13 from dual-enrollment and 38 from last year. Should I even drop the dual-enrollment stuff too? What would I replace it with to show that I bear useful knowledge and skills in areas pertinent to the job, or use as testament to my work ethic, discipline, dedication, etc.? I mean, I don’t want to show that I’ve been a bum for the past year.</p>
<p>Well I wouldn’t be lying. I just wouldn’t be telling them what my qualifications were?
And I’d keep the job during the fall if it was convenient.</p>
<p>I mean, it’s not illegal to omit the schools you’ve attended, right? (I mean, I’m doing fine at UVA … I am a rising second year with third-year standing in the honors chemistry track.) </p>
<p>I’m sure parents give job tips like this too – don’t mention where you go to school, etc. (I also find that coworkers treat students differently.)</p>
<p>It’s also kinda urgent, because I’d like to clinch the job and I’ve only recently contemplated the problem of looking overqualified.</p>
<p>Agree with owlice - lying is only going to backfire in the end…especially since you say that you’d consider keeping the job in the fall. Might as well be straight up and let the chips fall where they may.</p>
<p>The honor system at UVa does not seem to have made much of an impression on you. I sympathize with your need for money but what you are proposing is dishonest and unethical.</p>
<p>Well I would fess up if I were confronted about it during interview.</p>
<p>What I think it’ll work out is like this: the Unicru system gives me a green, the manager is almost ready to automatically hire me (asks some preliminary questions, background check, etc.), and I act like a local C’ville resident, the kind of demographic that would be smart and willing to learn (and has background knowledge in various areas) and who did well in HS. But I would also act in such an impoverished manner that they’d never suspect I would be a current college student. The question doesn’t come up, and I won’t have to lie.</p>
<p>Still, I need something to replace my college stuff with on my resume. Is my coursework of sufficient value to still represent it on there? A lot of it is AP and dual-enrollment courseswork, which I guess saves me because that is college level work that is not necessarily taken in college.</p>
<p>@mattmom: It may be dishonest, but I wouldn’t consider it to be unethical. If we always thought about ethics 24/7, we would never get anywhere and never push ourselves forward in society. Galoisien is thinking of themselves and trying to make a better future for themselves, as they should be. I know a lot of people who get a job during the summer, don’t mention that they’re going to college in the fall, and then just quit when the time comes. I didn’t do this the summer before my freshman year, and was not hired for any jobs at all, because employers want somebody who can work on a long-term basis.</p>
<p>Galoisien, surely there are other things you can include on your resume, other than school things. I never included grades, the only thing I really included was classes or what not. What about volunteer experience? Past work experience? </p>
<p>Can you tell them that you decided to take a year off from college or something? This way you could still keep your academic information and still possibly get a job.</p>
<p>See I only started working last summer. (In Maine.)</p>
<p>I happen to be a volunteer Wikipedia administrator (if that counts for anything), and I work in a UVA research lab. But a lot of C’ville people work in the UVA Healthcare system, so maybe I can count enough on the manager’s ignorance (biology department == medicine department, right?) that he won’t question it.</p>
<p>I’d also like to represent myself as really knowledgeable about workplace science (the organic chemistry of deep frying and degreasing!! yeah) or that sort of thing, which most employers would interpret to be “technically-inclined” but I don’t know if that’s worth anything without a vocational licence.</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>The authors of Nickel and Dimed and Scratch Beginnings both omitted significant portions of their past work history and posed as working class people, so they could both have an insider look at working class America to write their book… was that unethical of them? I don’t think there’s anything morally wrong with trying not to look overqualified. It’s just not playing all your cards at once.</p>
<p>I think the bar is actually lower for being unethical than being dishonest. But IMO gauloisien is tripping over both bars. No more from me on this thread.</p>
<p>I don’t know what you plan to do is unethical. I have mixed feeling about this. I know I am always by the book and I keep having trouble finding jobs and watched with envy the people who are less qualified getting hired. </p>
<p>D lost a very good paying job this summer because she told the agency she is going into fourth year and cannot commit to a full time position beyond the fall. This was for a job that as a 70% turn over rate and the employer wants assurance that she will commit to a full time job. I am sure most people just fib to get those jobs else they won’t have such a high turn over rate.</p>
<p>Here’s the thing: ethics have this tendency to be inconvenient.</p>
<p>Because being honest is inconvenient doesn’t make dishonesty acceptable.</p>
<p>Galoisien needs to build a positive work record. The way to do that is to get a job, be honest, and work hard. Then he will have a positive work reference to use when looking for the next job. </p>
<p>But you probably think that is the chump way, right? Better to lie, so that you can “push yourself forward in society.”</p>
<p>Okay, for one position I guess I’m going to try the strategy of not mentioning any of my academic coursework at all (maybe the research lab) and act like I’m a fresh HS graduate (though it was 1 year ago – hope they won’t blink) just entering the workforce. Let’s see how this turns out…</p>
<p>(If asked about school, I’ll tell the truth, and explain that I’d be very accomodating during the fall. But I won’t tell what I don’t have to.)</p>
<p>Can you please tell me how this is unethical or lying? I really don’t get it. I’m not cheating on an exam. I’m making up a reason for why I handed in an assignment late. I didn’t steal. And certainly I am not telling an untruth.</p>
<p>I think some parents might better sympathise with this: society discriminates against working mothers with children, because children are simply baggage for the employer. Especially if the mothers in question are single working mothers. </p>
<p>As a result: mothers make sure they don’t reveal they are mothers. (I certainly know, because that is one of the tactics my single mother had to use to get a job.) College students sometimes have to make sure they don’t reveal they are college students.</p>
<p>If I were the hiring manager, the year-long gap on your resume would make me wonder, “What was that kid doing during all that time? Definitely nothing productive!” I strongly suggest including your college student status on the resume.</p>
<p>Do you have any paid work experience? If you don’t, it is the lack of experience what’s hurting you in your job search, not the fact that you are a college student.</p>
<p>I’m having to be up-front in my job interviews that I’m only planning to work for a year or two before going back to grad school, so I certainly think you need to be up front about still being enrolled in college…</p>
<p>Now, now, people. Let’s not bother young galoisien with our pesky deontological ethics (lol, I had to look that up to see what he was talking about).</p>
<p>Plainly put galo, you want to lie to get more hours, and want us to come up with ways to make your lies more believable. </p>
<p>And yes, galo, what you want to do is called lying, no matter how many irrational spins you try to put on it.</p>
<p>Can you explain to me how not telling an employer EVERYTHING about myself (the fact that I’m an AP National Scholar, the fact that I’m going into neuroscience, the fact that I’m going to work by bus and not by car) is lying?</p>