MrsX

And your uncle hired you.
That's ok I won't tell.
Zip.

Alan2005

Yes, he's unemployed too. It's a tough job, but my pre-disposition to idleness gives me an advantage over most people.

MrsX

Look I have a brother, He'll fix you up. No prob. Tell him MrsX sent you. You good at poaching? Don't worry, we got it covered. Good gig.

Alan2005

I can poach an egg - I learnt it at uni.

Oink

The only course I failed at uni was ten pin bowling. You needed a 150 average to pass the class and I could only muster a paltry 70.

MrsX

Wrong altitude, won't work. Needs to be a Canadian altitude. You have papers showing you can poach at Canadian altitudes? And we need references from your uncle.

Almost Canadian

Not at all. My black cat was from a University with the top ranking that was available by the Law Society at the time. I chose it because it was close to the Army barracks I was staying at at the time, and it allowed me to study part time, which I needed to be able to.

Since obtaining my black cat, I have never been asked where it came from: only what my billings were the previous year and/or to pass a technical test. I have never been asked what type of cat I have by any other English lawyer, nor have I ever asked another lawyer where their's was from. As I said, in the real world, it is totally irrelevant.

Jingsamichty

In my industry it's boom or bust. In boom times, anyone with a pulse will do, and in bust times, it's your little black address book that is most useful.

Educational qualifications rarely come into it - all they do is show that once upon a time you were smart enough to learn how to pass a few exams.

If I had two equivalent candidates in front of me, one with a UK degree and one with a Canadian degree, I would still only be looking at their experience since graduation.

el_richo

I had that very situation a few years back and chose to go with the ex (female) model

London Mike

I agree with this comment. The people I've met who can barely fog a mirror with Masters or MBAs, jeez. Experience counts for so much. Of course, you wanna get a shortlist for interview and for that you might apply a qualifications criteria but I'd never question the calibre of someone based on whether they'd gotten a good degree in the UK or Canada. Either would be fine with me.

Novocastrian

You do realize that that's very badly put. I also know an ex-female model, but I wouldn't hire him.

el_richo

Ooops

Novocastrian

Well, you did tell me what your field is, and as you know I've no direct experience there, but what I do isn't a million miles removed either.

The chances of being hired with one (2 year) postdoc are vanishingly small wherever you did your PhD (unless the job is in a community college or a very very minor Uni with no grad program, such as any of those in NS except Dalhousie).

I often (but not often enough) chair Search Committees for tenure track appointments, and I've never hired anyone with less than 5 years postdoctoral experience.

I'm quite sure that McGill is no more lax.

Jingsamichty

At the risk of perpetuating a terminally dull thread/subject, how does one actually define a 'good' education?

I suspect that those of you involved in academia have a rather different definition to 99% of the people ("customers!") who pass through your hallowed lecture halls. So whose perception is the correct one?

Can a technical college course where 100% of the students go on to valuable skilled employment possibly be considered "inferior" to a loftier discipline at a prestigious university? Or is education just as driven by snobbery and the 'right label' as everything else?

Novocastrian

Well, we need hewers of wood and carriers of oil or water I suppose, but quite frankly, that's all rather tedious.

"Customers!" annoys me quite a lot. It typifies the decay of education at all levels IMHO. What is the concept behind the word? That young people are merely fodder for the market? Who is to control this market? Mindless self-centred drones of capitalism?

Best of luck with that mate.