Worried that I might be over qualified for HHA or CNA job because of college degree

duskyjewel · Jun 5, 2013

At the bottom of every application you sign is a statement saying that everything you've put on the application is true to the best of your knowledge. If you omit your college degree, you would be perjuring yourself by signing it. I'm sure overselling yourself is a much bigger deal than underselling yourself, but the fact remains that you will have lied on the application. If they find out, it's a fireable offense. So you could land the job, then lose it, if they decide to be sticklers about it. Not worth the risk, IMO. I have a bachelor's degree from nearly 20 years ago but just became a CNA a bit less than 2 years ago. It didn't hurt me in hiring. The worst hurdle I faced was no experience and no connections. Until I could drop the names of a couple friends who had been hired, I couldn't get my foot in the door at my former employer. I really think that sucks but it is what it is. Once I had a few months of experience, though, I got hired by my current employer on my own merits and with no difficulty.

Good luck. Be honest. Besides, even a CNA can need critical thinking in their work, and a college degree shows there is a greater chance you're good at that. Probably a HHA needs that skill even more, since you're likely to be alone with the patient much of the time and will be the only one present to decide when they need a higher level of help/care.

mvm2 · Jun 5, 2013

I guess it would depend on the company. The Home Health Care place I work for would be thrilled to hire anyone willing to be a HHA/CNA. They always seem to be needing help. I personally did not have any experiance, but they are very willing to teach all I needed to know. I am sure that a college degree would not hinder you. They have many employees that are there for just a short time before they move on to another job. But they at least will have you to help them as long as you are there. I would take the leap of faithand apply. What is the worst thing that can happen. They won't offer you a job, but then again you might get the job and have it for as long as you need it.

MommaTy · Jun 5, 2013

You are not over qualified for the job just because you have a college degree. We have CNAs that have bachelors in science (not nursing or anything in specific).

flod · Jun 6, 2013

Do you think they would hire someone even if this is their first job?

flod · Jun 6, 2013

I guess it would depend on the company. The Home Health Care place I work for would be thrilled to hire anyone willing to be a HHA/CNA. They always seem to be needing help. I personally did not have any experiance, but they are very willing to teach all I needed to know

Do you think they would hire someone even if they don't have any job experience (this is their first job?)

flod · Jun 6, 2013

The worst hurdle I faced was no experience and no connections. Until I could drop the names of a couple friends who had been hired, I couldn't get my foot in the door at my former employer. I really think that sucks but it is what it is. Once I had a few months of experience, though, I got hired by my current employer on my own merits and with no difficulty.

I guess to increase my chances I should ask if I could shadow the job and make friends working at the place whose names I could put in the application?

GarrettLeonard · Jun 6, 2013

Over qualified? Is this a joke? I know CNAs with Doctorates. Degree doesn't mean jack crap if it's not related to the field. You can have a Ph.D in Computational Mathematics, and STILL not be qualified to be a CNA. (I know a CNA who has one, retired, but she STILL had to take classes for her CNA, STILL had tot ake the same exam as everyone else!)

I would heavily discourage pushing your degree if it's not related to the Nursing profession.

You'd be pretty stupid to do that, just apply, put in your degree. It wont even be worth additional pay. In the medical field, you're paid by your profession and your credentials within that profession. As far as they'll care, you got a shiny piece of paper to stack in your filing cabinet.

Volunteer at Nursing Homes, shadow etc. pay attention and learn. If the companies you applied to, do not require experience or current certs, apply to them. THose are agencies you want to grow into. Work them for a couple years, etc.

mvm2 · Jun 6, 2013

Do you think they would hire someone even if they don't have any job experience (this is their first job?)

I think that Home Health does give people with no experiance a chance to learn and grow. The only experiance I had coming to my company was I took care of my mother in law a few times. She is in a wheel chair, and had imobility problems due to a messed up knee replacement. I have been there for a year now, and I was just an aide, but I learned and grew a lot. They also look at what you do know, and what you feel comfortable with, and set you up with clients accordingly. I now have gone threw CNA classes and I am more confident as a care taker now.

green34 · Jun 10, 2013

With today's economy, you won't be overqualified. My friend was having trouble getting a first job and his mom tried to get him a job at a Pizza Hut. He looked at her and asked why should he hire someone with no experience when he has college graduates applying to be waiters and delivery guys.

I would list the degree but do not emphasis it or hide it. Let it be what it is. Don't expect extra pay if it is not related to healthcare. In today's economy, a lot of people are turning to healthcare. My sister was considering taking a CNA test because had a finance degree and working at Starbucks. She now works at a library but still.

Also, a lot of people apply to work as CNAs and HHAs to get patient care experience in order to become a PA. Most PA programs require patient contact and my sister was telling me that the some of the ones she's looked at require both shadowing, volunteering, and working.

mstearns09 · Jun 10, 2013

I have a Bachelors degree in education and English, 20 credit hours towards my Masters degree, and 10 years experience in education. I now work as a CNA. It isn't going to hurt you at all unless you make a big deal about it. In my case, my degree has actually helped me. Managing residents with dementia is often like handling a classroom full of unruly students.

mintygirl · Jun 14, 2013

I am applying for HHA job at agencies that don't require any experience or certification. But I am worried that I won't get the job because I am a recent college graduate and barely have any job experience. I was thinking perhaps to get a HHA job one might need to be fresh out of high school or else have some job experience after high school, instead of having gone to college for four years like me to be overqualified and suspected of leaving as soon as a better opportunity presents itself, which would not be true in my case.
I applied for a couple jobs that I found didn't require any experience or certificate.
They required three professional references, so I put the names of professors. If I hide my college degree I am not sure what professional references I could use... high school teachers?
I was also thinking that they might see me as overqualified because of my degree and assume that I would apply to other higher paying job and would soon leave, and therefore, not worth hiring.
Am I being paranoid? Do they not care whether you have a college degree or not?
I want to also like to know, for those agencies that only hire experienced or certification, do they have hidden requirement of not being a college graduate (overqualified) or having some previous job experience at any field?
I was thinking maybe getting the CNA certificate might trump my weakness of being overqualifed in education and underqualifed in job experience.
I'm afraid even if I do get my CNA after several hundreds of dollars, I might be deemed over-qualified for my college degree. If I don't put having gone to college on the application, I would be having years of gap without schooling or work, which I guess might look bad.

Sounds like you just want a job in HHA, in that case you don't need to get you CNA. Its nice to have and stuff once its out of the way but its not really required. Despite what people are saying about omitting you degree, honey if you need the money now don't worry about it. You can always say your taking classes or have your A.S instead of a bachleor unless you have your masters or ph.d lol. in which case that'd be really cool!

In the end they just want kind, caring and patient people.