Foreign Language Proficiency Exam

[gcalvin]

I've worked mostly for smaller companies, but I spent 11 years with the US division of a multi-national corporation that does about half a billion dollars a year in US sales -- nearly two billion dollars worldwide. I worked in the IT department, starting as an application programmer, and wearing various hats during my tenure there. I was also involved in many employment interviews, as the company typically wanted my opinion of candidates -- especially my evaluation of their technical skills. Admittedly, these were all positions that asked for "bachelor degree or commensurate experience" -- a degree was not strictly required -- so maybe things are different for jobs where a degree is a requirement (but I doubt it, for reasons I'll explain later).

I don't recall a transcript ever being requested. Rarely was the school discussed, except in rare post-interview cases where someone (not me) might say something like "wow, that's a good school -- he might want more than we're willing to pay." The things we were looking for were:

1) Relevant experience
2) Attitude and work ethic
3) Signs of general intelligence and problem-solving skills
4) Personality (will the candidate fit in with the existing team?)

Now if someone did not have work experience, but their educational experience was relevant, we would of course consider that. But we never got into comparing degrees or schools, let alone comparing electives on a transcript. Someone with several foreign languages would have received special notice, but not because of a college transcript -- there was a space on the application form asking about languages.

So that's my experience for what it's worth. I haven't gone out on any interviews with my new degree yet, but if I do run across any companies that are biased against Excelsior or the Big 3, or that compare college electives from one candidate to the next, I'll consider myself fortunate to land in their reject pile.

-Gary-