<p>We can cite many jobs, nay, careers where a degree or even advanced degree is required to be hired, but NOT to do the actual work.</p>
<p>I see this as driving a wedge between the middle class and the poor, because blue collar workers of my generation have been able to raise a family and buy a home, but that is not really possible now unless you are self employed and willing to work 80 hrs a week, if you don’t have a degree or even advanced degrees.</p>
<p>What brings this to mind today, was a neighbor mentioning that her public college dept. recently hired two new staff. Both are recent immigrants with , Im assuming work permits. I questioned why they were hired as opposed to an American citizen and was told, because they were the most qualified. But neither job required specialized skills, ( one was a receptionist), however I don’t doubt that they perhaps had more degrees than other applicants.
But considering that jobs are still difficult to find & that getting on as a state employee is a pretty nice gig, I found myself irritated, very irritated actually.</p>
<p>Am I oversensitive? Do you hire people with the most degrees so it looks better on paper?
Im not against immigration, but I have problem with a degree as the determining factor for positions where one isn’t required. I also am biased towards hiring of citizens( especially for govt positions) if nationality is not relevant for the job.</p>
<p>But I want to broaden my perspective, so tell me why its a great idea.</p>
<p>Its a community college so not grad students.
One also mentioned that she was pregnant and commented that she may return to her home country for the delivery because the college didnt offer paid maternal leave.</p>
<p>EK, are you sure you know their immigration status and the complete hiring story? It is not unlikely that they either won a green card lottery or hold some sort of a spousal visa that allows them to work in the US (my SIL was in exact same situation).</p>
<p>I was just going by what she told me, which was they were hired because they had more education than the other applicants.
My main point that I was trying to make ( & apparently failing) was that, should advanced education be considered for positions that don’t require it, and is that so desirable that immigrants with it, are hired over citizens withoutit.</p>
<p>( i dont believe the position was listed as a receptionist, Im sure it was customer service advisor or some such, but the duties were similar)</p>
<p>Leaving citizenship and immigration status out of it, this is just credential creep and the devaluation of the high school diploma.</p>
<p>The reason for this is that an employer may see that someone with a bachelor’s degree has an X% chance of being a successful employee, while someone with a high school diploma has a Y% chance (Y < X), even though the job does not require any specific knowledge that the bachelor’s degree holder has. The bachelor’s degree merely demonstrates that the candidate is able to learn to a greater degree than the high school diploma does, which may be favored when training a new employee.</p>
<p>Of course, X may not be greater than Y by that much, but if the employer has no shortage of bachelor’s degree holders applying for the job, then the employer may use the presence of a bachelor’s degree as an initial screen for the job.</p>
<p>I see people on CC & other educational sites advising students that " not everyone needs to go to college".
No, not if your family has a business and/or is wealthy and they can support you while you get on your feet but otherwise, pretty much, if you want to earn enough to buy a condo and retire before you die.
I see a disconnect between people saying you don’t need college and saying that by all means hire the person with the most education even if all the education they need can be learned on the job.
The person with more education, is usually the one from a higher socio-economic class.</p>
<p>Degrees may not be required to do the job but people with degrees may catch on faster and the job may be done more satisfactorily. I am guessing american citizens with degrees were not interested in the position.</p>
<p>You do generally need education beyond a high school diploma these days, but education does not necessarily mean a bachelor’s degree. Many people still do make a good living in the skilled blue collar trades, for example.</p>
<p>Perhaps in their 20s but wages in blue collar jobs do not increase with experience.
Not without a union advocating for you and those have been disappearing for decades.
Look at all the $30 an hr jobs with Boeing that were moved to $15 an hr jobs in South Carolina.</p>
<p>Emeraldkity4, at some point in the past your ancestors were immigrants too. I hope they did not encounter your kind of attitude when they were trying to build their lives in this country.</p>
<p>I legally immigrated to US 19 years ago. As a refugee I did not immediately had a green card, but I was fully authorized to work in US, just like a citizen. As far as I am concerned people like me, who are here legally (or to be politically correct - documented), have the same rights for a job as those who were born here. </p>
<p>By the way, I am a US citizen now - have been for around 15 years now. As a naturalized citizen, in my job search should I yield to those who were born here?</p>
<p>Yes, its true, approx 400 years ago my relatives were immigrants.
Were they offered govt jobs in preference to the locals?
Thats a good question.
Why did you single out that smaller point in comparision to the others?
Id like to hear what you think.</p>
<p>Without some details about the visa status, I am not convinced a community college would have applied for an H-1 visa for a job which might only pay 25k or so. It costs 2500-3000$ to apply for one through an attorney and takes a couple of months to come through with a risk of rejection. The visas are routinely applied for postdoc researchers, faculty positions, IT people at Universities. Not certain why a community college might need people on h-1 visa.</p>
<p>I singled that out because you mentioned that point in more than one post in this thread and to me it stuck as a sore thumb.</p>
<p>I think your focus on immigrant status is wrong. As long as they are here legally and are authorized to work and the job does not require citizenship, their immigration status is irrelevant.</p>
<p>I understand your frustration with regards that now many office jobs that do not require degree are filled with the people, who do have degrees, and people without degrees are left out cold.</p>
<p>You should blame bad economy, that results in too many overqualified people willing to take jobs they would not look at in better times.</p>
<p>If you still have issues with immigrants taking the jobs, you feel belong to citizens, perhaps you should consider calling your congressmen. Additional 11 million or so might soon get a chance to compete for jobs.</p>