Dates on degrees don’t make sense – will people care?

Different countries have different conventions around the résumé / CV, and you might want very different versions of your résumé for applying for jobs in academia or industry. That said, at a general level readers are interested in the flow (are there gaps which are unaccounted for?) and the skills trained. I would put the dates of study and a note about the date of award so that if an HR department does cross-checks, it won't flag spurious discrepancies:

  • 2015–2017 studied M.Foo, University of Bar
  • 2012–2015 studied B.Foo, University of Quux (degree awarded 2019)

I suggest you list the years you were studying/enrolled, not the years degrees were conferred, i.e.,

  • 2015–2017 Master’s, Second Grade, Second University.
  • 2012–2015 Bachelor’s, First Grade, First University.

I believe this is standard for CVs – indeed, employment periods are listed in this way – and does not suggest "you received your degree before you really received it," hence, is not fraudulent as hinted in a comment above, and below:

Don't do this! It's lying to indicate you had a degree before it was awarded...

Administrative delays are irrelevant and it doesn't matter when a degree was conferred. Regardless, the date a degree was conferred will be clear from certificates. To be really careful, dates degrees were conferred could be noted in the text that follows bullet points, but I really don't see that as necessary.

...This could easily get you fired from a job.

This cannot get you fired: It is the truth.

Listing the years degrees were conferred creates problems. For instance, suppose the years degrees were conferred are listed, as per another answer, i.e., 2017 and 2019. Further suppose employment is listed from 2017. This leaves a CV gap prior to 2017 and it incorrectly suggests studying in parallel with employment. Further problems are also likely.


I suggest you write:

  • Master’s, 2017
  • Bachelor’s, 2019

Most people only care about your highest degree. So they won't be interested in when you got your bachelor’s. All that matters is the date the degree was received. When you started is not particularly relevant.

There is no reason to avoid explaining the dates. If someone asks, explain.

Tags:

Cv

Degree