That was an amazing story !! As for the interviewing the interviewer, that sounds so good !'

Thank you so much everyone! This means a lot. I feel so guilty for not knowing better back then. My issue is that when I apply to certain institutions the HR team needs the certificates. Whenever I see my certificate I feel so ashamed

Hi everyone!

I needed advice from people with experience in academia and in industry as my third class degree still haunts me even if I am almost ready to graduate with a PhD.

I am a former Biomedical Sciences graduate and due to past mental health issues that i was too proud to admit at the time, I ended up with a third as I was underperforming in exams which counted 80% towards the final grade. My assignment grades as well as both my research project and literature based critical study were classified as 2:1. Unfortunately module assignments are not being mentioned in the transcript so all you can see apart from the two dissertation grades is a disaster..

I was lucky to have a supervisor who provided excellent recommendations throughout the years so I managed to get an MSc in a medical field with merit and later on an MA in a related joint field (social and medical sciences) with merit. I got accepted into a PhD with scholarship and I am close to graduating with some publications and teaching experience on my back. Even though I worked hard to get away from the third class honours classification and it did not bother employers in England, I still feel uncomfortable with it because in my country the classification is one of the main questions being discussed in interviews. Mental health issues are stigmatised here and I cannot say that I have obviously screwed up. I have fully recovered from my depression and anxiety yet I made some bad choices back then and I am honestly being haunted by that classification for many years now.

I would appreciate your advice. Is there anything I can do? I considered contacting the university to see whether I could potentially retake some modules but after doing some research I found out that this is impossible.

How can I talk about this to potential employers?

Please don't tell me to get over this as I obviously need some advice and that is the reason I am posting here.

Thank you : )