Recruitment Toolkit
Assessing Experience
Substituting Education for Experience
Some minimum qualifications provide verifiable work experience that may be substituted for degrees. If no alternative is listed, substitution is not allowed.
Calculating Length of Experience
To determine the length of experience, look at the beginning and ending dates of a job by month and year. In assigning credit for months worked, subtract the starting date from the ending date. Websites are available for such calculations.
If no ending date is given for the most current job, use the date the application was submitted for the ending date.
To receive credit for any month, the applicant must have worked at least 15 days in that month. An example is found below.
An applicant indicates s/he worked for a company from June 3, 1995 through July 4, 2001. The length of his/her work experience is calculated as:
Dates Worked6/3/95 – 7/4/01 |
Years |
Months |
Explaination |
|
| June – December, 1995 | = | 7 |
|
|
| 1996 – 2000 (full years) | = | 5 |
|
|
| January – June, 2001 | = | 6 |
NOTE: applicant left July 4th; therefore, s/he did not work at least 15 days in the month |
|
| = | 5 | 13 | ||
TOTAL
|
= | 6 | 1 | |
Not all applicants provide complete time frames; they may present their work experience in various formats or with varying detail. The following calculation methods are used:
(1) Month and Year are Provided
If no day of the month is given, use the first day of each month to determine beginning and ending dates of employment. An example is found below:
|
June, 1999 – June, 2001 |
OR | 6/1999 – 6/2001 | = | 24 months or two (2) years |
| June, 2000 – May, 2001 | OR | 6/2000 – 5/2001 | = | 11 months |
| June 1, 2000 – May 31, 2001 | OR | 6/1/2000 - 5/31/2001 | = | 12 months or one (1) year |
(2) Only Year(s) are Provided
If the applicant only provides the year(s) of employment, give credit from December of the beginning year to January of the ending year. Subtract the starting date from the ending date. An example is found below:
|
2001-2002 |
= |
December, 2001 to January, 2002 |
Two (2) months |
|
1998-2001 |
= |
December, 1998 to January, 2001 |
Two (2) years and one (1) month |
Full-Time v. Part-Time Work
To receive credit for full-time employment, an applicant must have worked at least
35 hours per week. Part- time work experience is pro-rated using 40 hours per week
as “full-time” for computation.
20 hours per week for six months = three months of full-time work credit
If an applicant indicates hours worked as a range, such as 10-20 per week, give credit at the midpoint of the hours.
Hours varied from 10-20 per week = 15 hours credit
Please reference the FTE & Standard Hours Conversation Chart for additional examples.
If an applicant worked more than one job simultaneously, experience in all of the jobs may be used to qualify the applicant, provided the duties are appropriate to the job classification and can be verified. The actual hours worked in each job must be calculated.
Overtime hours may not be counted in qualifying an applicant. If an applicant worked 50 hours per week, credit is given for full-time work – or 40 hours per week.
In qualifying an applicant, all of these situations are considered valid work experience if they are directly related to the job, and if the applicant specifies the dates and hours worked.
Military work experience is considered valid if substantiated with discharge documentation (DD-214). In some cases, military experience is so diverse that granting full-time credit for it would be inappropriate. Under these circumstances, contact your Recruiting HR Partner, Branch Campus HR or USF Health for assistance.