Chronic Illness, Third Degree and Cover Letters [closed]

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

I am having trouble getting companies to reply to my applications, believe because I got a 3rd degree from Oxford. Unfortunately the underachieving was strongly related to the onset of my Crohn's disease that caught me completely off guard and crippled me during the time I was there. I am starting to wonder whether I should be mentioning this in some way within my applications cause it's a factor that I had no control over but I overcame it nonetheless - went ahead to do two masters degrees with work experience in the middle.

Has anyone had a similar experience? What did you do?

manpreet 2 years ago

I am wondering whether a brief explanation of my Oxford+disease-experience (with a positive resilience spin) will work for or against me.

I have never seen a case where a company had a strict education requirement, but was willing to waive it due to an applicant's (current or prior) illness.

If you always mention your Crohn's disease when you apply for a position, you could mention it, and mention how much you overcame while in college.

But using it as an excuse for not having the expected degree classification isn't likely to come across well. If you don't normally mention your disease, I would continue to avoid doing so.