This is the logical consequence of the watering down of undergraduate degrees over the past several decades. Employers use education as a way of screening hires

This is the logical consequence of the watering down of undergraduate degrees over the past several decades. Employers use education as a way of screening hires for intelligence, diligence, and other factors. Since undergraduate education has become something everyone "has" to do, the graduated-from-undergraduate flag provides minimal signal. The PhD still does, for now. This signaling game is really wasteful though. As others rightly point out, people getting these degrees aren't really using PhD skills on the job. They're wasting some of their most productive years in a zero-sum status game. More and more lately, I've come to believe that tech companies should just decline to play this silly game. Hire promising people right out of high school and tech support them the necessary skills --- bring back the E1 level. Issue your own aptitude tests if you want. You'll be at a competitive advantage relative to the people who demand that candidates do well on the credential treadmill.