When I started at IBM in 1990 you could get your foot in the door with basic experience, i.e. a college degree could get you an entry level role in a software l

When I started at IBM in 1990 you could get your foot in the door with basic experience, i.e. a college degree could get you an entry level role in a software lab (you’d need a CS degree to get a programming role in such a lab). I worked with people who'd started fresh out of high school and had worked their way up, with IBM providing training in various fields. By the time I left in 2001, on the job training was very much in the past, and new hires were expected to have all of the skills from day one. So, it's not new, but it’s not how things were until the last twenty years or so (excluding Silicon Valley which always seemed to have higher expectations for lower skilled roles).