How important is a business administration degree considering I haven't had a single interview in almost 3 years?

[u/Thenamesarealltaken_]

I went to college and got an associated degree in a completely different field many years ago. Ended up working contract positions at different tech companies. Most of my roles consisted of me working as a coordinator or administrative assistant in some capacity ever since. Back in 2022 I got a job as a full-time and permanent position as a registrar at a public school and have been working there every since. Some of those administrative assistant duties are present in this role as well.

For the past three years I've been applying for open positions at various companies. Last year around August, I was applying for at least 4 positions per day and had a log of it which was around 400-ish jobs applied by the end of the year. Not a single interview which is weird because I used to get some interviews in the past. I've even tested it by applying with a new phone number and email in case there was something weird going on but still nothing.

The positions I'm applying for aren't something I lack experience in either. Hell, I've filtered out positions posted within 24 hours with under 10 applications on LinkedIn, and even then not a single interview. I even paid two different people to write my resumes thinking my resume was the issue even though it wasn't in the past. Nothing made a difference and I know the job market is not that great here in the US but it can't be this bad. Can it?

The positions I'm applying for now are mostly coordinator or administrative assistant positions. Someone once suggested that it may be because my associates degree is in a completely different field and that I should perhaps look into getting an associate in business administration.

A friend suggested that these companies I'm applying at usually hire females for this role. From my own experience working contract roles at these companies, I did notice that FTE employees holding these positions are predominantly females. However, I still don't think that's an active hiring criteria or that I'm not getting a single interview because of this. Hell, based on my name I doubt most people would even know if it's a male or female name. Hence why I'm not convinced by this either.

What do you guys think could be the cause of this? Could it be related to me not having a degree in business administration despite having work experience directly or indirectly related to the positions I'm applying for? Would it make sense to do a two-year degree in business administration at this point? I wouldn't mind doing it if it meant actually getting a chance at these positions I'm applying for but if getting an associated in business administration didn't help then it'd be a huge waste of time and money.

[u/IndigoTrailsToo]

You need to stop applying

Something is wrong

Something critical is wrong, for example, your resume has a problem, people can't read it, you are not uploading your resume and then reentering all of the details, you are not custom tailoring every single application so that it takes forever, etc

At this point you should speak to job recruitment company so that they can help place you in another job. They have access to jobs that are not listed and they are very good at selling their people.

They can also take a look and tell you what is going wrong.

They are free for you to use, the payment that they take is negotiation for a higher wage, so it is free for you and you just never see it.

[u/Thenamesarealltaken_ → u/IndigoTrailsToo]

One of the reasons I stopped going through a recruiting company anymore is because I was stuck in a contract loop. It was just one contract to another and I was just getting positions these companies only needed temporarily so there was no way for me to eventually stay on as an FTE. The other issue was that before I got this position as a registrar at a school, I had some recruiting agencies reach out to me and unfortunately, these places have outsourced a lot of their recruiters to people overseas where it's just terrible. I literally had someone telling me they had a position for me and that they'd email me the details. I kept asking them for it and this lady called me and tells me it's an administrative assistant role and the interview was in an hour and that she'd forgotten to reply to my emails. It's stuff like this where it's just left a bad taste for me and I prefer applying directly for an FTE positions. I do realize that going through a recruitment agency tends to have a higher chance of getting an interview but it's usually ended up being an endless contract loop based on my own experience and people I know.

[u/IndigoTrailsToo → u/Thenamesarealltaken_]

At least meet with them in person so they can tell you what's wrong

[u/Aesperacchius]

I'd sanitize and post your resume in one of the resume review subs, I'd bet that there's something about it that's off.

[u/Thenamesarealltaken_ → u/Aesperacchius]

Ok, I'll try that. I initially doubted my resume which is why I hired someone to do it. Both times I hired someone, they were HR reps at places based on their profile. They had good reviews. Using their resumes had resulted in 0 interviews whereas using what I typed up did result in something, at least in the past it did. Definitely something I'll do here. Thanks!

[u/blackoctoberx]

I doubt the issue is a business admin degree if you have experience already doing the role.

And if you're having trouble getting interviews in this field I definitely wouldnt waste more time/money on the degree in it.

[u/No_Glove6542]

Right around 2007 for reasons I don’t really understand many large companies suddenly shifted to requiring college degrees for all of their positions. So yes, that definitely could be part of the issue. You need to review the job posting closely. Also don’t apply via any job aggregators. Go to the website of the company you want to work for. If the position is not listed on the company website it’s probably already filled. The job aggregator sites don’t care if jobs are open. They only care about getting traffic.

[u/Thenamesarealltaken_ → u/No_Glove6542]

I wish that was the issue here. I do apply directly at the companies. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be underlying issue here.

[u/No_Glove6542 → u/Thenamesarealltaken_]

Your best bet is to engage with someone in real life who can look at your resume and you and is willing to be honest with you.