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 one point decrease from the last survey.

“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.”

Vault’s 2008 Online Degrees Survey was conducted in early June and consists of

responses from 172 employers and hiring managers working in various industries across

the United States.

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.”

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.

Vault is the leading media company focused on careers, offering over 120 online and

features thousands of company and university profiles, information on hundreds of

occupations and industries, articles on a multitude of workplace topics, a network of

message boards for professionals with over 2,200,000 posts and jobs-related video, blogs

and research tools. Its clients include nearly 1,000 advertisers and recruiters, over 900

universities and graduate schools, and over 7,000,000 consumers worldwide.

Maintaining offices in New York, London, Mumbai, and Hong Kong, Vault was founded

in 1996 by Hussam Hamadeh, Samer Hamadeh, and Mark Oldman and recently received

a majority investment from Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a $5 billion private-equity firm

focused on media and communications.