Employers: Stop Using 4 Year Degree as Qualifier

Student Loan debt is over $1Trillion , and poised to be the next economic disaster since the housing crash of 2008. People throw their hands up in the air as if there is no cause or solution to this problem, as if every student HAS to go to college and HAS to take out loans they will never be able to pay back in order to even be considered for a crappy entry level position.

It doesn't have to be that way. But most people don't talk about the responsibility that falls on the shoulders of the Employers.

Every time I see "4 Year Degree Required" for an Entry Level position I want to throw a chair through the window. This absurd qualifier, the result of what is known as "credential inflation", is listed on job postings ranging from Administrative Assistant (Office Lackey) to Customer Service Rep.

You could say it's our cultural thirst to be more educated that has spurned the explosion in college enrollment and tuition.... but that would be silly. What's fueled this insane rush towards loans and degrees is this credential inflation - the notion that a Bachelor's Degree in History, Economics, Theater, Sociology, or Puppetry somehow indicates that a candidate is more qualified for a beginning position, where they will have to learn skills on the job anyway.

Granted, this cultural shift has made it so that yes, everyone with half a brain does go to college. Those who skip college are not mental giants, they are usually people who really could not hack it. And so employers, when sifting through dozens of resumes, can use the two letters "BA" as a quick way of sifting out the people with enough drive to finish a degree from those who did not.

But this is a thoughtless and damaging hoop to make an entire generation of people to jump through in order to prove their bare competency for a job. It's a terrible reason to force millions of middle class families into debt.

That anyone with a modicum of intelligence goes to college does not indicate that the degree is worth anything at all - merely that the cultural pressure to go college has reached a fever pitch. There are many young people who are very, very intelligent and terrified about the notion of starting their lives out with $50K in debt. I help inspire these young people to skip college and find faster, smarter, cheaper ways to get their lives going. How to show employers that they are worth hiring without a stupid credential. How to start their own businesses and learn marketable skills.

But why should these intelligent students have to be the outliers? The first thing I help young people deal with is the ludicrous social stigma of skipping college. They are chastised by parents, teachers, and friends for making a smart choice about their life, and avoiding the financial mess of higher education. This isn't right.

On top of that, Employers are disappointed with graduates as employees. In a study published in 2015, a huge gap was revealed between student and employee perceptions about their competencies in the workplace. Students thought they were much better prepared than the employers.

So Employers aren't happy with the people who are getting the credential that they are requiring. But can you really blame the students? How can you expect someone to have the skills Employers want when these young people have spent 16 years inside the bubble of a classroom, learning nothing about real life or money?

Remember the nonsense you learned in college? Unless you went to Medical School, probably not. Most of the General Ed requirements, convoluted academic texts, and theory jammed into your brain during college is forgotten soon after the final exam and graduation. Why then are we pretending, as a culture, that this nonsense is somehow related to a person's value and intelligence?

Systemic change takes time. But Employers: you can make a difference right now. If you have any entry level job postings that require a BA, take it down. Come up with your own qualifying tests to determine the abilities of your applicants. Encourage people who apply to communicate their unique value and how they would contribute to your company. If you want dynamic employees you have to encourage people to be dynamic, and not just line up like sheep to get credentialed like everyone else.