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What do you value more in a candidate: education, experience and/or attitude?

Steve Bridger

This piece on the BBC caught our attention this morning. More students than ever are earning undergraduate degrees and more people are taking on second degrees but perhaps still lack hands on experience (including in HR). 

Two degrees now needed to get higher pay - BBC

Some time ago Rachel asked: “if you could take just one more qualification what would it be...?” and a few people suggested a Masters in HR. Keith added that “HR people [could] always benefit from a good understanding of finance.”

Or should we disregard educational qualifications in the recruitment process entirely? 

As Keith said on that particular thread:

"There is no magic answer that will open the doors to a HR career for you. As with all careers it’s a combination of hard work, luck, qualifications, experience and being in the right place at the right time."

What do you value more in a candidate: education, experience and/or attitude?

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  • Hi Steve

    I would agree with the ranking Robert has given these 3 things.

    I am a "millennial" or "Gen Y" (as they like to label us) who when looking at options for leaving school was more or less constantly told by my teachers "if you want to get a good job you must go to university" or "oh you'll need a degree if you want to do that" - this of course resulted in myself and many of my friends opting to go to university after college to study our various choices, and by the time we graduated the country was in the middle of a recession and we found that our degrees were more or less completely pointless in trying to get a job. An extreme example yes, but what got myself and my friends into work was the fact that we were willing to work and learn.

    I think that education is of course important and in some roles a necessity (I wouldn't want to see a doctor who had never studied medicine and the human body for example) but for most roles a good attitude will definitely take first priority for me closely followed by experience.
  • in reply to Gemma
    Hi Gemma, I'm not a millenial and I was given the exact same advice as you were at school. I graduated into a recession where inflation was 15%. I was the first person in my family to get a degree so it meant a lot to get to university in the first place however, I feel my attitude, application and continuous approach to my own development is probably the thing that gets me and keeps getting me work. Hopefully it will continue to be so and evolving a skillset to adapt to the changing market, tech and what the future holds is probably an approach that is even more applicable to today's job seekers.
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  • in reply to Gemma
    Hi Gemma, I'm not a millenial and I was given the exact same advice as you were at school. I graduated into a recession where inflation was 15%. I was the first person in my family to get a degree so it meant a lot to get to university in the first place however, I feel my attitude, application and continuous approach to my own development is probably the thing that gets me and keeps getting me work. Hopefully it will continue to be so and evolving a skillset to adapt to the changing market, tech and what the future holds is probably an approach that is even more applicable to today's job seekers.
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  • in reply to Sharon

    Hi Gemma and Sharon

    Me too! I graduated into a recession and the newspapers were full of “graduates on the dole” stories. Then we went into the yuppie years and a boom. Then another recession. Then times were quite good again and the cycle of boom and bust was supposed to be a thing of the past. And then we had the banking crash. Then austerity and cuts.

    For some years we have also been talking about the war for talent and how recruitment has changed, but I see recent graduates still struggling to get their first proper job so, to come back to the question, that suggests to me that experience is being prioritised and my own lived experience is that it was ever thus.

    While there are some jobs you can’t do without a specific qualification, the organisation I currently work for has hardly any. For me, experience comes first but if the attitude isn’t right, the person never lasts.

  • in reply to Elizabeth Divver
    To get a job someone has to take a chance on us. A chance that our attitude was right, a chance that my understanding of what was required was good enough and that I had some relevant and transferable skills for the job - acquired from anywhere not just another similar role. Without someone taking a chance none of us would have the careers we have now. I try and remember that when I am recruiting.