Legendary hockey player Wayne Gretsky said, “I don’t skate to where the puck is now. I skate to where it’s going to be.” You need to take the same mindset about your education.

Think about your next promotion. Have you seen a job description for it? What were the education requirements? If you haven’t seen a job description or the there isn’t one, what is the level of education of the other people in that role?

For example, there is a job I’ve been looking at for a little while. The job description says a masters degree is preferred. However in meeting with the people in that role, I’ve noticed that most of them have a PhD or an MBA. Regardless of what the job description says, two advanced degrees are the benchmark. Guess what, it’s time to go that degree.

The thing about degrees is that they take a long time to acquire. If you know where you’re headed and what job you want to have a couple years down the road, today is the day to start working on that degree.

What if the interview is next week? Well, do the best you can to represent your concrete desires to seek more education. You can mention that you’ve started your application for a particular program or that you’ve requested additional information from the college. Being accepted to the program is worth more points, as is completing a few semesters. Wherever you are in the program, do your best to represent all the education you have. Time to start that application!

One caveat. It is possible to have too much education. If you’re applying for a promotion, put down as much education as you can. If you’ve been laid off and you’re trying to get back into the entry level positions, you should consider taking your PhD and/or masters degree off of your résumé for those applications.

I see many resumes come across my desk for entry level jobs that make individuals look very overqualified. When I see this, I think two things. One, if I give them the job when they’ve become accustomed to a position higher up the ladder, they’ll still be looking for something that gets them back there and they’ll likely be gone soon after they’re hired. Second, it makes me wonder why they got laid off in the first place and I begin to doubt their qualifications.

Bottom line: get as much education as you can as fast as you can. If you do, you’ll have it when the opportunity arises. If the job you want doesn’t need it, just leave it off.

If you have questions about your particular situation, let’s get together to talk about it.