Report: Experience proving to be more important than qualifications

Three in five employers are choosing candidates with a wealth of experience rather than a CV full of qualifications, sales recruitment hopefuls have been told.

A report by student-employer matchmaking site StudentGems.com showed that 61 per cent of recruiting businesses value experience in their industry over qualification.

Furthermore, eight per cent said that degrees are pointless, giving hope to sales recruitment hopefuls that have not been to university.

An additional 41 per cent of employers said that they valued vocational qualifications more than degrees, while 19 per cent said that they would hire an applicant with two years experience and no qualifications over another candidate with no experience but an honours degree.

Sue Harrison, co-founder of the website, said: "With the current economic climate, job vacancies are receiving large amounts of interest and it is becoming more and more competitive."

Countering this, the BBC recently said that universities are facing a huge surge in applications for places, some seeing increases of up to 40 per cent.

Aaron Wallis is a specialist marketing and sales recruitment agency that offers graduate sales jobs across a wide range of industry sectors. For employers, Aaron Wallis offers a unique graduate recruitment service that is backed by a 12 month rebate period.

Posted by Wayne Bly

Filed: 14-01-2010