HR Requirements (Full of Crap)

[Scott Sheriff]

John,
You damn straight nailed it!

Scott Sheriff
Director
SST Digital Media
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.com

[Mike Cohen]

Much anger I sense in you.

Frustration is obvious in your post.

A good employer should recognize talent and work ethic regardless of a degree. Of course, HR departments, which do the initial screening at tv networks and large organizations have requirements they need to check off. You might try to get in touch with someone who works for one of the companies to which you are applying and get their opinion on this issue.

We have discussed many times on this forum the value, perceived value, or lack of value, of a degree of any kind (AA, BA, BS, Full Sail, Film School, Maine Workshops, etc). To each his own opinion.

I have a 4 year degree. Out of the 124 credit hours I took, 12 were internships, 10 were actual production classes, 15 credits of other Communication requirements, and the rest were a combination of history, arts, sciences, music, math, literature. In addition to the classes, I spent about 20 hours a week at the campus tv and radio stations, several on-campus AV jobs, reporting assignments for the campus newspaper and a lot of hours in the library.

So in a nutshell, the production classes taught me the basics – technology has changed 500% since then – the rest of the classes taught me to be a critical thinker and made me a more well rounded person. But it was the internships, paid work and extracurricular activities that really let me learn and immediately apply what I had learned.

Can you get similar experiences on your own, without college, on the job? Absolutely. As you have obviously learned over your career, you need to apply yourself and work your bazooka off. And as Bob Zelin always reminds us, you need to keep learning because the 22 year olds trying to get your job know a lot.

Does that help?

Good luck in your continued career success.

Mike Cohen

Medical Education / Multimedia Producer

[Cory Petkovsek]

[John Grote, Jr]My problem is that as an editor and creative person all my knowledge of the equipment/tools that I use have been OTJ.

Maybe it is instead your lack of consideration of their perspective. Do you know what an NLE is? What about AAC, MP4, MP3, 4:2:2? Of course you know because you’re an expert in the field. The job postings are written either by an HR person or a hiring manager, neither of which is an expert in the field. They are grasping for straws and making listings based on guesses. They need you to show them why your experience is what they are looking for. They have identified where they are at.

Rather then get upset about it, which will only eliminate you from the job market, change your attitude and help them find a great person to fulfill their immediate need of a pro editor. Write in your cover letter that you are happy to demonstrate how your experience will meet their needs more effectively than having a degree. Be prepared with your client list and portfolio.

Cory

—
Cory Petkovsek
Corporate Video
http://www.CorporateVideoSD.com

[Tim Wilson]

[Cory Petkovsek] “Write in your cover letter that you are happy to demonstrate how your experience will meet their needs more effectively than having a degree. Be prepared with your client list and portfolio.”

Y’know, once you have the client list and portfolio, you probably won’t even have to mention the degree. The HR folks have a list that says “You must be this tall to ride this ride,” but for the right work, they’ll set that aside. I’ve seen it before.

The point is, don’t let the “requirements” throw you off your game. If it’s the right job for you, show them.

Besides, a lot of companies will pay you to go to school. Never too late if somebody else is paying, and it will set you up for the next job. 🙂 Because one thing about the market right now is that people with experience AND education are desperate for jobs.

For now, though, show ’em the work, show them the recommendations on your LinkedIn page- which goes a LONG way with HR people, and, no kidding, by itself could be enough to overcome the education objection – and don’t sweat the rest. From the sound of things, your larger risk is getting bounced because you’re overqualified.

[John Grote, jr.]

Cory,

No offense, but I’ve been doing this for 24 years if I don’t have a damn good resume and cover letter by now, I should get out of the game and start digging ditches. I’m not going to go in begging them for a job just because the HR department doesn’t have a clue. Nor is it my job to enlighten them. Hell I have to do that on a daily basis when I work with clients, as most of us do. That is what we as editors do, it’s the great Jedi Mind Trick and I save that for paying clients to try to guide them through a session, not a HR person who has no idea what I do, and doesn’t care either.

You seem to be missing the point, so I will try to clarify it a bit. This has to do with ONLINE Applications that get sorted by a computer. That is my main part of frustration. The computer doesn’t care about ACC or OMF or 4:2:2. It looks for keywords, degree being one of them but other keywords as well. Somewhere they were given a list of Keywords, AVID, Final Cut, Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, Camtasia and other applications, hardware or software based that the person who left bought and had no clue what half of it does. But they read about it or saw it online somewhere and so now this gets added to the keywords too. Plus the people in HR for the most part could care less about being educated in the difference between .mov or .wmv or SD and HD. They think that their little HD Flip cameras are the equivalent to a RED camera because it says it shoots HD.

What you say has a lot of truth to it, but only when you can actually get to a a live body and not what HR perceives to be the Key Words. I have been a post manager and I pay no attention to key words, because I know what I’m looking for and I find it in that person during a live face to face interview. There is these things called potential and determination and for me that goes a hell of a long way in the hiring process.

J. Grote, Jr.

[Mark Suszko]

Those keyword searches are really dumb; I mean, they can easily be fooled. Re-submit your online app and put the key words “bachelor’s degree in communication” it… in a sentence like “my experience can be demonstrated to be equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in…” The computer may pass thid thru. The keyword programs are not sentient; they merely count words that fit their list and add up a score. You can game this, and people often do.

That said, if you think you’re going to be applying for more and more gigs like this, perhaps you should look into an easy online degree program, and run thru it a few hours a night.

[Matt Townley]

I have battled this same fight and have been frustrated by it time and time again. Unfortunately, the reality is that the lack of a 2 or 4 year degree can make a difference. It doesn’t matter if it’s right or wrong, it’s just how it works most of the time.

Take for instance a scenario where a large Post House is hiring a new editor. The hiring manager gave their position to HR to fill and HR screened 250 resumes. They had phone interviews with 10 or so and brought in 4 for in-person interviews. Of those 4 final candidates they all have great reels and good references.

In a second round of interviews two of the candidates are weeded out because of other variables. That leaves two candidates, both with killer reels, great references and personalities that jive well with the existing team. They both have great experience and skill sets, but the only real difference is that one has a 4 year degree and the other doesn’t.

The hiring manager is responsible for the new editor. The successes or failures of this editor falls on them, and their boss is watching. When a hiring manager hires someone, they put a little bit of them self on the line for that person. If they hire the candidate without a degree and that person washes out in 6 months, their boss may ask them why they hired that person instead of the one with the 4 year degree. The degree may have absolutely nothing to do with it, but the reality is that perception matters.

Just my 2c.

[Scott Rachal]

Maybe not completely full of crap…

We do prefer applicants with a degree, but for this reason: It shows that you can make a huge commitment, and finish something.

We are perfectly aware that any fresh college graduate will have to be re-taught from day one. The buttons change so fast, no 2 or 4 year program can keep up. It is easy to start a project, but the ability to start a project, and finish the project, is something that not everyone has. A degree of any kind shows an employer that you have that finish inside you.

That’s why we like to see something like that on a resume.

Good luck job hunting.

[Mike Cohen]

[Scott Rachal] “We are perfectly aware that any fresh college graduate will have to be re-taught from day one. The buttons change so fast, no 2 or 4 year program can keep up.”

I agree with this. You should not go to school specifically to learn software/hardware etc. You go to school for the fundamentals and to learn how to work hard.

When I had an opportunity to do some editing at my new job, I had never used an Ampex online bay, but I had used a Sony 9000, a CMX 3500 and a variety of decks and terminal equipment. It was enough to get started, but I had to learn the operation of the new suite from scratch.

But I had the fundamentals. That is what got me my job and allowed me to keep it.

Mike Cohen

[Matt Townley]

[Mike Cohen] “I agree with this. You should not go to school specifically to learn software/hardware etc. You go to school for the fundamentals and to learn how to work hard.”

Agreed. By the time I finished school half of what I learned in my first two years was obsolete and useless. But the process of learning and the tools you learn to absorb and retain knowledge never go obsolete.