Do Prospective Employers Value Online Bachelors Degree Programs?
June 24, 2009 by John Maxted
Filed under Online Colleges
One of the largest questions that people hold relating to getting and education online is how employers are going to respond to it. Will they believe that it is lower quality than a traditional education, or will they accept it as equivalent or even think it is better?
Times have changed and are continuing to change with respect to the way potential employers perceive online bachelor degrees. The forecast is gaining strength everyday for those who undertake online bachelor degrees.
It was not long ago when employers viewed online bachelors degrees as being inferior. One of the reasons for this was because it was new and yet to be tested. One of the other reasons was that mainstream institutions had yet to include their own online bachelor degree programs. However, as time has gone on, more well known universities have begun offering online education programs and as a result more corporations and employers are starting to accept these online degrees as worthwhile and equal to conventional degrees. This is changing just what employers think about online educations.
Today, online degree courses do not have any where near the stigma that they had perhaps a decade ago. It is still possible to come across a skeptical employer, which is why its first important to stress the value of your education on your resume. Make sure you list the degree you received, the name of the school you received it from, your GPA and the major coursework or tasks you successfully completed.
Be prepared to talk about your experiences with an online degree course during your interview. Discussing why you decided to pursue an online degree, how the classes were administered, how tough it was and so on will all help with clearing any apprehension even an extremely skeptical person may have.
It is also important that you select an accredited and certified school to pursue your diploma with, but that ought to go without saying and shouldn’t be a problem with the ever expanding choices prospective students have available to them at the moment.
Some employers see online bachelor degrees as having extra merit than their conventional counterparts. The reason for this is the use of, adaptation and mastery of innovative technologies that are crucial to businesses. Businesses are becoming increasingly reliant on things such as webinars and video conferencing, and therefore an online student’s knowledge in these areas could prove to be extremely valuable. The ability to display how much direct experience you have with new technologies such as these can give you an advantage over another applicant.
online bachelors degrees require a great deal of independent drive, responsibility and all around effort. As we move further into the future, more and more people are understanding this and viewing it as a strength. The view is that a student that can successfully steer themselves through an online degree course at the same time as handling all of the other responsibilities in their life such as their current employment, children or both, is likely to have the skills to complete any kind of assignment or responsibility at the workplace. This is another area that the online degree student definitely has an advantage when compared to the traditional student who probably had an easier path.
Fortunately, the stigma surrounding online education is no longer present for the most part. Employers may even think more of you for finishing an online degree program. Be sure to take an accredited bachelors degree program and be primed to stress the benefits of an online program to any prospective employer throughout the interviewing and hiring process.