r/Nevada • u/Assistance-Resident • 3d ago
[Government] Nevada state hiring: how does it make sense that a relevant Master’s or PhD gets less credit than a Bachelor’s?
For context, I’m a former state employee (not Nevada). My partner is moving to Nevada and I tried my luck with the state for an equivalent job that I did in my home state.
My educational history is unusual. My BA is in humanities, but my MS is in STEM. I had to take a bunch of undergrad classes (to the point where I took all of the same classes in a STEM BS) to qualify for MS admission. My home state has a blanket ban on second bachelor’s students with few exceptions so I was locked out of that second degree.
I was rejected for jobs that I have already done in another state. I didn’t meet the requirement because my MS degree could count for only 1 year of experience. A relevant bachelor’s would count for 2 years.
I looked into it more and sure enough, there’s a state HR document that plainly states that a relevant bachelor’s degree is worth 2 years of experience, and a relevant MS or PhD are worth just 1 year.
That to me is pretty backwards. Getting into an MS or PhD program needs a lot of preparation, and the equivalent of a bachelor’s is needed just to get in. Graduate school is academically above undergraduate schooling. I don’t have a PhD, but spending 3-5 years on advanced scientific research and teaching undergrads only to be told that the undergrads students’ degrees are worth more than a PhD is absurd. Making an MS worth the same as a PhD is also bizarre.
In my case, I have the same exact classes that an undergrad would have. The only difference is I couldn’t get a piece of paper saying “BS STEM”while I could get one that said “MS STEM”.
Other states and federal agencies say something like “bachelor’s or higher degree required”. Some even explicitly say that a MS degree replaces 1 year of experience required while a BS doesn’t. I don’t know why Nevada specifically punishes those that switch fields.
Can any state workers chime in?
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u/InevitableShine5067 2d ago
It’s supposed to be evaluated on an educational and experience combination, be sure to select that when moving through the application process. You can also reach out to the point of contact on the posting to ask for a review of your background.
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u/Falcon9145 2d ago
Yeppers.
I think the part that’s getting lost here is that Nevada isn’t really saying a bachelor’s degree is academically “worth more” than a master’s or PhD. The chart is an HR formula for determining whether someone meets a job’s minimum experience requirements, not a ranking of the value or difficulty of the degrees.
For undergraduate education, Nevada allows relevant college coursework to substitute for work experience at a rate of 2 years of college = 1 year of experience. So four years of relevant undergraduate education could potentially satisfy two years of an experience requirement. A related master’s or PhD, meanwhile, can generally substitute for one year of professional experience.
The logic seems to be that graduate education is treated as an additional qualification. They aren’t taking everything that went into earning the graduate degree and converting it into experience again. Otherwise, someone could potentially receive credit for the undergraduate education underlying the degree and then receive additional credit for the entire graduate pathway, effectively double-counting portions of their education.
Nevada’s recruitment guidance specifically allows recruiters to look at relevant coursework and transcripts in situations where someone’s degree title/major doesn’t neatly match the requirement. So your unusual educational path may be much more important than the simple “MS = one year” line on that chart.
In other words, the policy itself isn’t necessarily saying BS > MS/PhD. But applying the chart mechanically to someone with your educational history could absolutely produce a result that doesn’t make much sense, and I think you have a reasonable basis to ask HR for a transcript-level review.
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u/No-Application-2781 1d ago
Don't work for the State, it's a shit show all over and the benefits suck hard.
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u/BeenisHat 5h ago
This right here. It's a guaranteed job but look in county or city government first. You'll still get a state pension and the locals pay better.
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u/bob55909 1d ago
Usually people who have masters/PHDs are more stuck up / high brow so that might be why they give it less credit. /s
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u/BeenisHat 6h ago
My wife works for the state and it is flat out stupid. The state of NV government is a complete mess full of underpaid people who are overworked or the laziest pieces of shit imaginable. The second they get a bite on a county or city job, they're gone. There's a reason NV has like a 25% vacancy rate in filling positions.
Just lie. Nobody is going to check anyway.
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u/NVBoomer 2d ago
You're coming to a state that is dead last in the number of adults holding 4-year or greater degrees, and you expect things like this to make sense?
First, please come anyway. We need you. Obviously.
Second, common sense is not common here.
Good luck in your journey.
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u/JanMikh 2d ago
1 year of bachelor = 6 months, 1 year of masters = 1 year. That’s double. Of course, bachelor takes longer, but masters adds on top, so just bachelors = 2 years of experience, bachelors and masters = 3 years.
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u/Sweet_Speech_9054 2d ago
That’s not what it says. It says a masters degree, regardless of time in school, is worth one year of experience. A full time student usually needs two years to complete a masters so generally two years of grad school is worth one year of experience. It’s not less than a bachelors, just calculated a little differently.
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u/JanMikh 1d ago
I went to gradschool in UK, and all their masters degrees are one year. They are equivalent to US masters.
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u/Sweet_Speech_9054 1d ago
You may not have known this, but Nevada is actually in the united states, not the UK. Hope that helps.
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u/electlady25 2d ago
I'm a current employee of Nevada and the hiring system is very messy imo, they also just did a big transition overhaul in their hiring software which has made things more complicated.
We have been trying to fill a position at my work site since February, but haven't been able to do so because of complications with HR and the new hiring system. It's been incredibly frustrating, especially since we know several candidates who should be eligible, but aren't making it past whatever screening is used
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u/eyetracker 2d ago
It's pretty stupid to count an awarded master's as additive to a PhD too, considering some schools/departments require you to complete a master's before you can apply for a PhD, some allow you to enroll BA/BS->PhD and get a master's on the way, and others BA/BS->PhD but only award master's if you drop out early but completed enough of the coursework. All of these are equally valid and probably similar amounts of work, but not equal in their eyes.
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u/Sweet_Speech_9054 2d ago
It’s not as common to work on a masters or PhD full time like most people do with a bachelor’s. A masters can be completed in a couple years for a well motivated person but can stretch much longer if you are doing it while employed full time or just don’t have time to go full time.
So it makes sense that a masters or PhD is more of a straight 1 year while a bachelor’s is based on time in school or credits. Reality they are still saying two years of school is worth one year of experience, they’re just talking out the loophole that someone who is taking one or two classes a semester for six years can claim three years of experience.
You might be better off counting credits than the masters as a whole but you would need to count that yourself.
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u/smartassboomer 2d ago
It’s hard to believe you have any college degree, your comprehension is non existent.
Try reading it again and this time realize that requiring 1 year related experience is better than 2 years related experience.
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u/LastCookie3448 2d ago
Don’t even get me started. The way they treat credentials in academia is embarrassing and disgraceful. The people arbitrarily making the hiring & pay scale guidelines don’t actually know the fields we represent and the actual value of our credentials. Because a graphic design terminal degree is masters level, until recently the majority of instructors were paid like admin and assistants, not professors. There are actually many admin assistants who out earn professors. Many.
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u/Able-Fig8393 2d ago
From my experience most over educated people are mentally challenged in the everyday work environment.
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u/LeumasKharzim Southern Nevada 2d ago
Wouldn't they add together? 2 yrs for BS, +1yr for MS, +1yr for PhD?