Well now, this is kind of scary…

While employers and hiring managers are seeing more job applicants with online degrees these days, they’re not exactly clamoring to hire them. According to Vault.com’s 2008 Online Degrees Survey, while 49% of those who make hiring decisions have encountered applicants with online degrees, a 15 percentage point increase from this same survey three years ago, only 19% have actually hired a candidate who only possessed an online degree.

“A candidate with an online degree would have to be truly extraordinary otherwise to merit serious consideration,” said one hiring manager. “I don't think online degrees reflect a serious commitment to education on the part of the degree-holder.”   

When asked if they would give equal consideration to job candidates with online degrees and those with degrees from traditional colleges and universities, 63% of survey respondents said they would favor job candidates with traditional degrees while 35% said they would give them equal consideration.

Vault CEO Erik Sorenson said, “Everything has moved online, including education.  Though more and more Americans are getting educated online, there is still a bias toward traditional classroom education, especially for high-end careers and top-ranked companies.”

Vault says that while 83% of employers and hiring managers say that online degrees are more acceptable than they were five years ago, it seems there is still a ways to go before employers fully embrace them.  I’d like to hear from people who have recently obtained online degrees.  Have you noticed this bias as you’ve entered the job market, and have you ever regretted your choice to get an online degree instead of a traditional one?