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The Best Job Candidates Don't Always Have College Degrees Is there anything surprising or interesting about this truism? There are millions of jobs and million

by jsnk 11y ago

The Best Job Candidates Don't Always Have College Degrees Is there anything surprising or interesting about this truism? There are millions of jobs and millions of people without college degrees with infinite combinations of skill sets. Of course you are going to have some jobs that are best executed by some people who don't have a college degree.

ryanmarsh 11y ago
I'm pretty sure there's an entire generation (or two) of parents who beat into their children's heads that if they didn't get a degree they wouldn't amount to anything. Also, see: credentialism. So yes, for many people there is a belief that the only jobs for the un-universitied are garbage collection and scrubbing toilets.
Demiurge 11y ago
Things that are not surprising take a while to propagate into the core institutional rules. Internet has enabled information sharing, and people have figured out how to educate themselves relatively recently, in historic terms. It is good news when self educated people have more chances and educational institutions are pressured to innovate.
dikdik 11y ago
It's not surprising, but at the same time so many companies (outside tech) require college degrees for absolutely menial work. I work in biotech and it's fucking terrible. Recently was turned down for a job that required an MS in bioinformatics (at the time I was 4 classes shy of finishing the degree), this was also at the same company I was already employed at for 3.5 years. Since I didn't have a masters yet they did not think I would be qualified and they refused to let me do a project to showcase my skills. Instead they gave me a month-long internship so I could gain experience and apply for another position down the road. My first day at the internship I was given work that I could have done prior to starting my masters, it was insulting. My manager (who had an MS in bioinfo) could not even wrap her mind around the questions I was asking her, it was pitiful. I put my two-weeks in the next day. In this case I think the manager projected her ineptitude on me, since she couldn't do the job without a masters she assumed no one else could either. The further you go up, the worse it seems to get. SO YES, this apparently should be surprising to a lot of people...so many do not seem to understand this simple concept. Or at the very least, they don't believe it enough to actually put it into practice.

by jsnk 11y ago

ryanmarsh 11y ago

I'm pretty sure there's an entire generation (or two) of parents who beat into their children's heads that if they didn't get a degree they wouldn't amount to anything. Also, see: credentialism. So yes, for many people there is a belief that the only jobs for the un-universitied are garbage collection and scrubbing toilets.

Demiurge 11y ago

Things that are not surprising take a while to propagate into the core institutional rules. Internet has enabled information sharing, and people have figured out how to educate themselves relatively recently, in historic terms. It is good news when self educated people have more chances and educational institutions are pressured to innovate.

dikdik 11y ago

It's not surprising, but at the same time so many companies (outside tech) require college degrees for absolutely menial work. I work in biotech and it's fucking terrible. Recently was turned down for a job that required an MS in bioinformatics (at the time I was 4 classes shy of finishing the degree), this was also at the same company I was already employed at for 3.5 years. Since I didn't have a masters yet they did not think I would be qualified and they refused to let me do a project to showcase my skills. Instead they gave me a month-long internship so I could gain experience and apply for another position down the road. My first day at the internship I was given work that I could have done prior to starting my masters, it was insulting. My manager (who had an MS in bioinfo) could not even wrap her mind around the questions I was asking her, it was pitiful. I put my two-weeks in the next day. In this case I think the manager projected her ineptitude on me, since she couldn't do the job without a masters she assumed no one else could either. The further you go up, the worse it seems to get. SO YES, this apparently should be surprising to a lot of people...so many do not seem to understand this simple concept. Or at the very least, they don't believe it enough to actually put it into practice.