“Eleven years ago, Allie Cornett … left school, and went to work in the hospitality industry as a tour guide. For the next decade, she found herself repeatedly running into the same wall. ‘I have been told multiple times that I have a great resumé, and lots of experience, but no degree…,’ says Cornett, 33. At the last company she worked for, she applied for open managerial positions constantly over five years, ‘only to not get them because someone … who had a degree, did’. Cornett is a victim of a phenomenon called ‘degree inflation’: the rising demand for bachelor’s degrees in jobs that didn’t always require one, and probably don’t actually require one now.”
This is starting to turn around. There are downsides for companies. Arbitrarily demanding a degree for a job that doesn’t require one makes it harder to fill positions, results in dissatisfied employees who are working below their skill level, which leads to higher turnout, and companies have to pay these employees more.
The employer demand for degrees is partly driven by technology; many jobs are more complex than they used to be. But that doesn’t automatically necessitate a formal degree to do the job.
More employers are starting to realize this, so there’s hope for job-seekers that things may begin to turn around, resulting in more job opportunities and upward mobility for people who can’t, or choose not, to complete a college degree. Read story here.
Of course, if you’re a freakin’ genius with mental problems and a police record you don’t really need formal education and it won’t necessarily get you a better job anyway. See video below.
Eventually employers will rediscover that there are benefits to actually training employees directly or indirectly (hire and send them to technical school like in Germany).
[Off topic portion of comment deleted pursuant to Commenting Policy para. G — Ed.]