So I like a good laugh as much as the next person and of course I saw the Saturday Night Live skit where SNL clearly picked on some of the largest online universities. If you didn’t see it, you can view it here. As usual, they did a good job of pointing out some down-sides of online colleges especially if you haven’t thoroughly researched their accreditations. So it looks like they very closely copied some of the look and feel of the University of Phoenix website for their fake University of Westfield. They really didn’t spend much time talking about the education that you get at an online college they simply focused on the stigma that society places on online college degrees. They came up with four diversion tactics that the mythical University of Westfield taught them to use when they went on job interviews and questions came up about their degree. Here is a quick summary for you:
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Tactic #1: Change the Subject
They said to change the subject, cleverly pointing to a picture on the wall or an interesting plant located in the office. Interesting choice, I don’t know how many times I have interviewed a candidate for a job and it seemed like they never directly answered a single question. Not sure that it would work, but it’s a gimme for an SNL skit. I have to say I am not overly impressed with this lead-off tactic. |
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Tactic #2: The Vibrating Cell Phone
They said to pretend that your cell phone is vibrating and try to distract the hiring manager with that move. Right, you are PRETENDING that the cell phone is vibrating. How many meetings, interviews, etc. have we been in where there wasn’t an interruption by a vibrating or actual ringing cell phone. At the office I used to work at we actually had to ban cell phones for that reason! |
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Tactic #3: Mumbling…
The next option to avoid answering questions about your degree is to mumble. Well, what hiring manager doesn’t love that? Indeed, the classic low talker from Seinfeld is almost never a hit in the interview process. There is nothing I like better than not being able to understand the candidate since good communication skills is almost NEVER a job requirement. |
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Tactic #4: Fake a Heart Attack
Well if the hiring manager is persistent and you just can’t get him or her off of the topic of education the method of last resort is to fake a heart attack. Now, that would certainly be a memorable interview! Nothing like freaking out a prospective employer to lock in your chances to get the job. Especially after they get to deal with 911 after the false alarm phone call they no doubt will make. |
So these tactics and the jokes are actually just exceedingly lame to be brutally honest… The concept could have been funny but they really just didn’t pull it off due to comedy laziness (or some other excuse). They did have a couple of honorable mentions (runner-up tactics) like being vague about where you attended college. For instance respond to where you went to college by mentioning the word Michigan (in Michigan at home in my pajamas, not the University of Michigan). Now, that might work until the employer does the inevitable pre-employment education background check that most companies do (but probably ignore for the most part).
It’s definitely true that you need to think through what your best options are for you and your career. It may be that either budget constraints or time restrictions make it really hard for you to get a degree from a traditional campus-based college (at least from their campus-based program). The reality is… many campus based colleges and universities across the country are joining the online college bandwagon and offering online degrees. Even in the small town of Fayette, IA a small liberal arts college founded in 1857, Upper Iowa University, offers several amazing online degrees to compliment their campus-based programs. While that is a small and somewhat obscure college it’s just an example of how far-reaching the movement is toward online colleges and degrees.
The reality is that online colleges are a HUGE business and they are only going to become more prevalent. The costs per student are far less than the traditional brick and mortar school as not only does the university get to avoid housing related costs (dorms), food related costs (cafeterias and commons, etc.), and anything else related to providing classroom facilities, but they can greatly expand the number of students per class if they want to. While today some people still consider online colleges to be a joke (because they are stuck in the 1990′s mindset), they won’t be laughing at online degrees for long. The national average cost to attend a campus-based university in 2009 is $26,270/year*. The average cost to attend an online university is $13,540/year**. The national average for campus-based universities hasn’t been that low since the late 1980′s! It’s a viable option and as the costs keep diverging and more colleges start online programs, the more common it will be to graduate from an online college.
*Source: The College Board
**Source: Information directly collected from 100 online degree programs.
