Open degree - Employability?

hokate

What sort of reaction have you had from potential employers to the Open University Open degree?

Reply 1

04MR17

Volunteer Section Leader

Moved to Open University. :smile:

Open University

Milton Keynes

Reply 2

SuperCat007

Original post by hokate

What sort of reaction have you had from potential employers to the Open University Open degree?

I have a BSc Open (Biology), no employer has questioned it yet. I even have an Open HND and again nobody has questioned it. There could be questions raised I guess if you haven't done enough credits to have a 'major' subject. All my L2 and 3 credits are biology so I have basically done a biology degree, I'm just not allowed to be on the Nat Sci pathway.

Reply 3

TopTog

This area concerns me most. I worry that I'd finish my degree for OU only for potential employers to turn around and ask "where's your 2 years of experience?" It's a debilitating loop of failure, and I hope there is some kind of strategy or career tolls offered to me than the just throw me it there alone to deal with this career block.

Reply 4

SuperCat007

Original post by TopTog

What do you mean?

Reply 5

TopTog

Original post by SuperCat007

What do you mean?

I feel that in my experience learning institutions in geneal seem to do a pretty poor job of solving the problem of lack of work experience. Outside internships - which not everyone is able to do - it pretty much feels like your thrown on the scrap heap after graduating a particular course.

Nearly all vacancies I see advertised are asking for at least two year minimum experiences as a minimum. My fear of university is that, like any other learning provider, they can't magically provide five years experience in any particular field to help me get through the employment door. It's frustrating, and as an adult living alone on minimum wage paying a mortgage off, I can't afford to drop wages to apprenticeship salary, nor take time off attend a brick and mortar university. OU may be a life boat for me to get skilled up, but I'm wondering if that's enough.

Reply 6

Balor

Original post by TopTog

You should apply for those jobs anyway.

Listings will express an ideal set of attributes an applicant should have, but it is very common for nobody who applies to be an ideal fit and that is especially true if a hiring decision needs to be made quickly. Use common sense and don't apply for anything you won't be able to persuade them you can do in interview, but don't let those kinds of experience restrictions stop you applying. Make the best case for yourself that you can in your cover letter - the worst they can do is say no.

Reply 7

SuperCat007

Original post by TopTog

But that is the same for any new graduate, or anybody going into an industry from the bottom. In a way it's the great thing about the OU, you can study and work thus getting some experience. I have done this and will have 3.5 years experience in my industry when I finish.

Just because someone in HR or at a recruitment agency has written that you need x years experience doesn't stop you applying for it. You just need to prove in your covering letter why you're worth their time despite not having the experience yet. Or how you can use experience unrelated to apply to their situation.

I applied for a job which asked for 7 years minimum experience (who knows where they plucked that number from) and I was invited to interview. I wrote about the experience I have and what I have done that was relevant to the things in the advert.

From my experience of recruiting, these things are written in job adverts to put unsuitable people off applying. When I advertised an entry level job on Indeed I decided to take out the part about us wanting 1 year's experience, against my managers better judgement, and wow some of the s**t we got. Some were blatantly people making up their x number of job applications to get their job seekers benefit. It wasted a lot of my time, but was an interesting learning curve for me for applying for jobs in the future.