Should I be honest about this?

Okay, so here's my long and complicated situation -

I went to uni for 3 years. I passed my first year, but failed my second. I retook my second year, but due to health reasons I failed again. I was awarded extenuating circumstances and took a third attempt at my second year, but just as I was starting my year again student finance had decided to cut me off, even though I had evidence for my extenuating circumstances in the form of a doctor's note. By this time, I was feeling battered and bruised by the whole thing so I decided that instead of borrowing the course fees from my parents and feeling immense guilt, I would be better off withdrawing from uni altogether and trying to start a career. This was at the end of September, and needless to say, after countless interviews and promising phone calls with over enthusiastic recruiters, I'm still unemployed (sigh).

I realised a few weeks ago where I was going wrong though. I ultimately want to get into PR & Marketing, although I have absolutely zero experience and am now without a degree, or even a HND. My plan was to just get into a trainee sales job and figure out how to get into PR while at least earning some money, but nearly 5 months later I was still unemployed so decided to apply for PR apprenticeships instead, to at least get SOME experience. I've been rejected from most of those for being overqualified (i.e having A Levels while applying for intermediate apprenticeships which are GCSE Level), but Higher Apprenticeships, which are what come after A Level, are in such short supply, especially in PR & Marketing!! I've finally managed to nail down an interview for one tomorrow though, but I KNOW she's going to ask me about uni, because it's a question in the application form. If you've completed ANY part of a degree you're automatically ineligible for apprenticeships, so she's obviously going to ask me how I managed to stay at uni for 3 years, going into a 4th, and not come away with at least a HND.

I'm so sorry for waffling on, thanks for staying with me so far! This is the real question I'm getting at:

What exactly should I tell the interviewer? The way I see it, telling her I failed twice could either go one of two ways - either she appreciates my honesty, determination and ability to pick myself back up and keep going, or she'll think I'd be incapable of completing the apprenticeship because I failed. What should I do???

Reply 1

threeportdrift

Careers Forum Helper

Original post by cometojoy

......

"I had quite a serious health issue while I was at University, which meant, although I had several attempts, I couldn't complete any qualifications at all. The health issue is now fully resolved, but in the time I was recuperating, I realised that I wanted to do something a bit more practical and more people and project focussed [or whatever you think PR and Marketing is] so I decided to apply for this apprenticeship which I hope will give me the best foundation for my future career"

The thing about health issues is be clear there was one, but move straight on - no interviewer will ever go back and ask more if you say clearly that the issue is now resolved.