You are thrilled to be at an interview for a job in which you would really like to begin your career. Suddenly your interviewer mentions that she does not think that your online degree has given you the required skills that a degree from a bricks and mortar school would have helped you develop. You see your possibility of landing this job disappearing before your eyes. What can you do to save the situation? The fact is that there may be nothing you can do to save it. However, since it may be possible, you need to stay positive and use all your persuasive skills to convince her that you are still the best candidate for the position.

One fact to remember is that you do not need to mention that your degree was earned online. You do not want to appear to be defensive about it, so just do not mention it. Nevertheless, there are some people who feel that a classic on campus education is superior to an online education and will tell you about their misgivings. What should you do?

Do emphasize that the degree you have is from an accredited school which means that the school program had to follow the same guidelines as every other school including bricks and mortar schools.

Do not be defensive about your online degree by stating the advantages of an online degree over a bricks and mortar degree. That does not mean that you should not mention some of the skills that you have developed which would be beneficial to her company. Some of these might be:

1. The ability to communicate well with fellow employees through e-mail. If you had experience communicating with classmates and your instructor on important issues through the use of e-mail, talk about how you used e-mail to solve problems, organize projects, or gathered important information.


2. The ability to collaborate with others on group projects and possibly to lead those projects. If you had that experience while working on assignments for courses, tell the interviewer about those experiences.


3. The ability to use technology to accomplish various tasks that may be required in the job for which you are interviewing. You may have excellent word processing skills, spreadsheet skills, presentation skills, drawing or designing skills, or skills leading online seminars depending on your field for instance.


4. Your excellent ability to manage time well. You may have had to work on your degree while working full time and/ or managing a family and household responsibilities. You would probably have no problem handling multiple responsibilities on the job.

In addition of course you will want to emphasize some of your personal skills that you have developed outside of your degree program that will be beneficial in the job. After all you may have other skills and knowledge that someone with a degree from a bricks and mortar school may not have and those skills may be important for the job.

If you are applying for a position with a company and you are not sure what their feelings are about online degrees, it is a good idea to plan for the possibility that they feel negatively about such degrees. If the interviewer mentions doubts about your online degree, you will be able to emphasize the above strengths that you have developed which may be just what the company needs, thus giving you the advantage over all other candidates regardless of where they earned their degree.