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Is "confer merit" correctly used in the following sentence? The context is a job description, where the employer talks about skills, degrees etc that are not required, but that provide useful qualifications:
"A doctoral degree will confer merit"
Thank you!
Grammatically it is correct.
I looked for examples of "confer merit", and it is nearly always used in a religious context:
Traditionally, pilgrims walk the perimeter of the stupa in a clockwise fashion, an action said to confer merit.
So unless you are trying to play with this metaphor, it seems an odd choice of words.
A useful phrase is "is considered advantageous" (This uses the oddly distant passive formation that people prefer for this kind of thing)
The usual way to write this is to have a section for "preferred qualifications"
Required skills
- Master's degree in a relevant field
- 3 or more years experience in industry.
Preferred skills
- Doctoral degree
- 5 or more years experience in industry.
It is written as a list, not in sentences.
Sometimes "desired skills" is added, for "things that would be great, but we don't mind if you don't have.
