Degree/No Degree

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dobarr
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Degree/No Degree

#1

Post by dobarr »

I am an IT manager with many years of solid experience in networking, systems design, and most recently, infrastructure architecture. Before my most recent promotion, I saw the list of jobs on the church web site and decided to apply. I am not from Utah, and know very little about actually working for the church. I suspect it is a very rewarding job, but I imagine my pay is better where I'm at. What bothered me though, and maybe someone can shed light on this, is that I did not even receive any contact back on my application and resume. I think this is due to me not having a college degree. While my children will certainly be encouraged to obtain a degree, I did not have the opportunity. Instead, I have well over a decade of proven experience, and am considered a leader in my field. Is my impression correct, that the church essentially requires a degree for anything, that experience is not as valued? Or was my experience out of the ordinary? I'm not trying to make anyone upset, I'm just curious and trying to figure out what happened. In any case, I am happy where I am at, so I'm no longer so concerned about it.
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thedqs
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#2

Post by thedqs »

I don't work for the church but I know that experience would outweigh a degree. But from my own job hunting experience some companies get hundreds of resumes for the position and they might now even respond to your entry, especially as an on-line entry. Usually they have a computer go through all the entries and cut out ones that are missing certain keywords on them before a human even sees the applications.

So they might have looked over it or the computer might have cut it out before it even got to a human.
- David
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WelchTC
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#3

Post by WelchTC »

dobarr wrote:I am an IT manager with many years of solid experience in networking, systems design, and most recently, infrastructure architecture. Before my most recent promotion, I saw the list of jobs on the church web site and decided to apply. I am not from Utah, and know very little about actually working for the church. I suspect it is a very rewarding job, but I imagine my pay is better where I'm at. What bothered me though, and maybe someone can shed light on this, is that I did not even receive any contact back on my application and resume. I think this is due to me not having a college degree. While my children will certainly be encouraged to obtain a degree, I did not have the opportunity. Instead, I have well over a decade of proven experience, and am considered a leader in my field. Is my impression correct, that the church essentially requires a degree for anything, that experience is not as valued? Or was my experience out of the ordinary? I'm not trying to make anyone upset, I'm just curious and trying to figure out what happened. In any case, I am happy where I am at, so I'm no longer so concerned about it.
Not having a degree does not exclude you from employment at the Church. It is more likely that they found someone else that was possibly a better fit or some other criteria did not match up.

Tom
dobarr
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#4

Post by dobarr »

I think in this situation, thedqs is probably right. That's why I asked, I guess. Having always lived outside of Utah, I guess I always kind of saw the church as "small," and I even though I know how large it is, I didn't really think about how many people might actually apply. All the normal rules of getting past the recruiters probably apply.
Eric Werny-p40
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Employment Contract Lengths

#5

Post by Eric Werny-p40 »

Tom,

Please dispel a rumor. I talked to a Church employee, and he said that the
Church is trying to eliminate long term employees due to the
retirement issues (funding)

Is there any truth to this.
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WelchTC
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#6

Post by WelchTC »

Eric Werny wrote:Tom,

Please dispel a rumor. I talked to a Church employee, and he said that the
Church is trying to eliminate long term employees due to the
retirement issues (funding)

Is there any truth to this.
I've not heard that rumor, nor have I seen anything that would indicate that it is true. In fact, I believe that we actually received a "head count" bump this year in our hiring over previous years to support all of the cool and interesting new work that we are doing.

Tom
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mkmurray
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#7

Post by mkmurray »

Eric Werny wrote:Tom,

Please dispel a rumor. I talked to a Church employee, and he said that the
Church is trying to eliminate long term employees due to the
retirement issues (funding)

Is there any truth to this.
I have heard that the Church is growing in the number of contractual workers. But I don't think it is in replacement of long-term employees. In fact, I bet many of the contractual workers transistion to long-term if they are there long enough.
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nicholsjp-p40
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#8

Post by nicholsjp-p40 »

We have had a program whereby we could hire IT staff for up to 5 years as benefited employees. This program was called co-employment. At one time we regularly hired more co-employees than regular employees. However, we have increased our head count capacity to be able to reduce the need for co-employment, AND we have been able to augment our workforce with larger numbers of temporary contract [contingent] staff.

The primary purposes for co-employment and the increases in contingent staff was not to avoid paying retirement or to replace our regular employees, but to more closely and flexibly align project needs with the appropriate workforce number.
D.Webanalyst-p40
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#9

Post by D.Webanalyst-p40 »

My personal experience. I applied for a position with the church. I was contacted via email and a conversation of pre-screening began. I was asked to fill out a questioner which I did. Some of the questions had to do with education level. For years I have worked with business owners and often they tell me I am at an MBA level. When I suggest the idea of finishing my degree they all say something similar to this: "Why? Your skill level is already beyond a Masters level." Well, as my email screening proceeded, I was asked about my degree. When I stated that I hadn't completed my degree I was told that the church only hires those with degrees. I explained my experience level but was again told that I must have a degree to work for the church. That is my personal experience. Others may have had other experience who knows.
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McDanielCA
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#10

Post by McDanielCA »

I believe that this is just an information gathering process. If you fill out any application at any organization you'll be asked about your education level. I have never heard of an official or nonofficial policy stating that the Church only hires those with degrees. I would encourage you to keep trying. Since it is such a large organization with so many people applying, oversights do happen and persistence will help. Hope that helps!
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