In the process of updating my resume, I thought about how my old junior college, where I got an AA degree back when this area was part of Gondwanaland, is changing its name to Northwest Florida State College. It went through a minor change many years ago when it went from a junior to a community college, and I didn’t think anything about it. But now, the name is going to be completely different.
Do you think I should reflect this in my resume, or leave it as is and risk having a prospective employer sometime in the future think I am claiming credit from a nonexistent college?
Frankly, I’ve been thinking of leaving the junior college degree off entirely. Who cares that I once earned an AA degree in Science Education36 years ago when I’ve been a computer jock for over 20 years?
When I changed jobs recently I had a severance package which included a couple months of professional career counseling. The resume critique was very useful, and like yourself, I had a degree from a junior college listed alongside my other degrees and training. The career counselor said to only list the highest degree completed and don’t worry about the other stuff. I can see listing a lower degree if it would be relevant to the job, but I wouldn’t worry about it otherwise.
I think the degree shows diversity in your background, so I’d leave it in. I also think that you should put** Newcollege Name ** (*formerly * Oldcollege Name) on the resume, so some freakishly thorough reference-checker will be satisfied.
I’d go the other way – **OldCollege Name ** (nowNewCollege Name) – because the degree was from the old institution.
I’m in the situation that the high school that I went to no longer exists, so if I ever need to put that on my resume, I just put the name of the new non-existent high school on it. (There was a reorganisation of high schools in the city, and a few of the older high schools had no new school corresponding with them, in name or function.)
A lot depends, in my opinion, whether the new name sounds more prestigious than the old one.
Example: my ex-wife went to a college that was then called Texas A & I (a south Texas school that’s produced some star football players, like Darrell Green and Gene Upshaw).
It was later absorbed by the Texas A & M system, and is now called Texas A & M-Kingsville.
Since A & M is much better known and more respected academically than A & I ever was, I think she’d be well advised to call her school Texas A & M-Kingsville on her resume.
If you have a bachelor’s, then listing any lower degree would be a little odd. But I would definitely wonder about someone who listed a graduate degree and didn’t include their bachelor’s.
In time, the older name may become less familiar. You might want to list NewName (formerly Oldname).
This happened to me, BTW. I liked my old name (Peabody) just fine. It was known for its education of teachers and, in more northern states, for music education, high standards and awards. It was located across the street from Vanderbilt and we shared many programs in common. Eventually, we were absorbed by Vandy. Even my transcript says Vanderbilt. If I were applying for a job (heaven forbid!) and had to earn my keep in lovely New England, I would use “George Peabody College for Teachers of Vanderbilt University.”
I just came in here to jump on the bandwagon.
Being an IT person who’s been laid off ‘more than once’; I can definitely say that the professional resume people in my case have always said to leave off lower degrees. I haven’t been laid off since I received my masters, so I’m not sure if that matters or not.
I too have an AA; and general consensus was that no one cares about the AA degree, especially if you have a bachelors degree or better. You should only list it if it’s your top degree.