Xebedee

Do you mean the door has a crack in it or it is ajar?
If there is a crack, then Angie's list is an excellent resource for finding a decent chippie in your area.
However, if the door is ajar, then the situation becomes a bit existentialist:
I mean can a door truly be ajar? You cannot store anything in a door.
Unless there is a crack in it and whatever it is would have to be rather small and easily missed by even the most experienced chippie.
So calling out a chippie to fix your door-jar might be a bit of a waste of time or at worst self-defeating. The easiest answer might be to remove the door from the hinges and be done with the whole problem.

Of course, if the door in question happens to be a toilet door, what of the issue of privacy? The chippie might want to have a slash whilst trying to figure out which door you want him to work on.

Don't you agree?

Sally Redux

Angie wouldn't know a decent chippie if she fell in the fryer.

scrubbedexpat097

Craig might. He has a long list.

BunnyGirl

Thanks Natasha, that's great. When you transferred your OU credits were they from just completed courses or had you 'converted' them into a diploma etc? The reason I ask is that I thought I wanted to study for a business studies degree, started it and hated it so used the courses I'd completed to turn it into a certificate instead. Do you think I can transfer this completed qualification into course credit as well? Thanks

NatashaB

I converted a social science diploma which was just comprised of DD100 (social science!) and another music course which I can't remember the code for. They were both 60 point courses and converted into 15 US credits each, I think the social science course covered off a 'cultural course' requirement and the music covered off an 'arts appreciation' requirement, as well as fulfilling most of my free electives.

You probably just want to make sure that the transcript assessors know exactly what the qualification was made up of in terms of individual courses, by giving them a detailed, signed transcript. If you did your study via the OU, you will have some fun getting hold of that transcript I spent hours on the phone trying to get hold of it.

MusicMan71

I know this thread is a couple of months old now, so apologies, but I think it's an extremely useful thread.

My observations from my first year in the USA:

1) In a good percentage of cases, a lack of an appropriate qualification (HSD/GED/Associates/Bachelors) will likely ensure your resume never makes it to the hiring manager as it will be filtered out if applying via the online application process.
2) i feel that a bachelors degree is seen to be better than experience in many cases and some industry certifications still might not make up for a lack of degree.
3) Progression within large organizations is sometimes difficult to impossible without a bachelors degree, hence lots of USC's go to college to progress in their current role - or even to get a decent salary increase
4) NACES is a good accredited body to look at for educational equivalency that appears to be desired by colleges/universities for enrollment. Plus, from my experience, they will only accept equivalency documents by one single NACES organisation for all documents.
5) Reports appear to suggest that more and more employers are taking full advantage of the current supply v demand by insisting on bachelors degrees for lower-level work. Even a well-known burger franchise was reported to be doing this for flipper-jobs.
6) A Diploma Mill degree and/or online GED are, in most cases worthless. In fact, apparently in Oregon it's a crime to apply for a job requiring a diploma if you have one from a diploma mill.
7) Good local libraries and local educational institutes often have free learning tools (paper and online) for GED studying.
8) 5 GCSE/GCE's at C or above do not equate to the equivalent of a High School Diploma, strictly speaking. Since the HSD is achieved at age 18, it's viewed as being more advanced. That's not to say an employer in the US won't just accept 5 C's and in some cases they have no idea of the difference in international educational systems.
9) Permanent residents are eligible for financial aid toward tuition.
10) A new GED test battery is starting Jan 1st 2014. Any subjects taken before that date as part of an incomplete GED will need to be retaken. Either finish the series before that date (including retakes which have a 60-day wait I believe (varies state-to-state)) or wait for the new series.

NatashaB

What is a 'diploma mill'?

Speedwell

A diploma mill is a company who will issue you a diploma for a fee. They are not (except in rare cases, of which I know none) accredited schools or otherwise legally entitled to issue real diplomas or degrees based on courses that they teach (since they rarely actually teach any). Sometimes they ask you to list the courses you have already taken, or alternatively "life experience", but that's usually a formality since they are really in the business of printing official-looking pieces of paper for a high markup.

Pulaski

They sell fraudulent degrees and diplomas i.e. no study required. Plain and simple.

Not to be confused with some high-volume on-line colleges that have little academic credibility and which churn out many thousands of graduates each year, often of questionable ability.

SMSH

I found attending a community college and then transferring to a university worked best. Some states offer what is called a 2+2 program where you do your first couple of years at a community college (CC) and then transfer to a university (where your CC classes have guaranteed acceptance at the university). The benefit is that CC classes are cheaper than university ones. You also might look into testing out of subjects through CLEP (credit by examination), which will cut down on costs. For example, I was able to receive 12 college credits for French and 8 for German through CLEP.

On another note, the university I attended evaluated my O'levels (I never made it to A levels) and it did not cost me anything. Based on my O'levels, I was considered to have the equivalent education level of a high school graduate.

In my experience, having a degree in the U.S. does help, but it's also important to understand that contacts and networking are just as, if not more important. I decided to get a degree because I hit a "glass ceiling" in my chosen field and without the piece of paper couldn't move up any further.

Michael

In my opinion, it depends on the industry as to whether a degree is very important. In software engineering, it doesn't appear to be very important once you have a certain amount of experience. In my case, I didn't have a degree but was a software engineer, was never asked at an interview why there wasn't any entries for education on my resume, and I never had any problems getting interviews and job offers. Most of the people I worked with had a masters and an occasional PHD but I was most likely the highest paid engineer. When I was working for a Japanese company, they had a policy like all Japanese companies that engineers could not be paid more than managers so when I hit the top of the engineering pay scale, my boss promoted me to Software Manager so I could get into a higher pay scale. When I hit the top of that pay scale, my manager promoted me to Senior Software Manager and I promoted my best engineer to Software Manager to get her into a higher pay scale. Then when I hit the top of that pay scale, I was promoted to Director of Engineering and my Software Manager was promoted to Senior Software Manager. That must have confused HR since the total group only had a total of 10 people with a VP, Director of Engineering, and a Senior Software Manager. However the VP was doing 90% of the management with the rest of us primarily doing engineering.

My next job was with an American company that had engineering pay scales higher than managers. Even though I hired in at about 85% of my Director of Engineering salary as a software engineer, I had large stock options (Japanese companies don't offer options) and I averaged about 7% salary increases per year and never hit the top of the pay grade after 10 years but got very close (about 5% away) before I quit. Other than my last manager, I got along with my managers very well. I suspect my last manager became very resentful because I suspect I was making significantly more than him since he was really a terrible manager that was being shuffled from group to group as if no one wanted him. I would have a hard time believing that he was making more than 70% of what I made since he was technically the weakest person in the group and had very poor management and people skills. My boss at the Japanese company also didn't have very strong technical skills but recognized his technical limitations but he had great management and people skills.