"...the fact is that virtually none of the software engineering we do in the industry --- very much including most of the work done at Google --- requires a col

"...the fact is that virtually none of the software engineering we do in the industry --- very much including most of the work done at Google --- requires a college degree in the first place." That's really true of any job where a degree isn't a regulatory requirement. I think the problem with Google's hiring is less that they are hiring mostly people with degrees and more that the hiring process is a hyper competitive, stressful, multi-week long gauntlet.