Is The Collapsing Relevance of a College Degree... A Good Thing?

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#career #business #college

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Every day more companies are announcing that they will no longer be requiring a college degree to get a job with them.

More than half of the Americans that DO have a college degree are now working in jobs that don’t require one, and the stigma around not working a white collar job has almost been reversed as skilled tradespeople have started to significantly out earn their office dwelling peers. The decision to commit to an expensive degree is one that less people are making every year, and this is either a really good thing… or a really bad thing. A college degree used to all but guarantee an upper middle-class lifestyle in America, but that’s because they were extremely rare. According to data collected from the U.S. Census Bureau and compiled by Statista only seven point seven percent [7.7%] of Americans aged over twenty five [25] had a college degree in 1960.

In 2022 THIRTY SEVEN PERCENT [37%] of the population had one, this was almost a five HUNDRED percent [500%] increase in the number of college graduates that companies could pick from. Now if you DO have a college degree and think that you are still in the elite minority, well let me knock you off that high horse. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research fewer than two thirds of Americans are part of the workforce so a college degree is nothing special anymore.

If you are a worker that wants bargaining power in their career you really only have two options. The report also found that companies still requiring their workers to have a piece of paper as a prerequisite for landing a job were hurting themselves by artificially limiting their candidate pool, or paying a premium for work that could be done by anybody.

This was a report published by a school famous for selling those pieces of paper, when they talk about the workplace benefits of overlooking a college degree… you can probably trust them… So it looks like this trend is going to be a win for workers and a win for companies right?... Wrong…

It’s true, more than half of American workers with a college degree right now are NOT working in roles that REQUIRE a degree… on paper… BUT for every person working a six-figure coding role at a forward-thinking tech startup that dropped their college degree requirement, there are hundreds of workers with a four-year degree under their belt who are waiting tables because they couldn’t find work anywhere else.

Sure, they are both TECHNICALLY working in roles that don’t require a degree but the nice sounding headlines are covering over something that could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars over your career.

So it’s time to learn How Money Works to find out why the collapsing value of a college degree is great news… for some people…

[markschiller]

Reminds me of a joke I heard. On my first day at my new job, my boss sat me down and said “I want you to forget everything you learned in college. None of that matters here because we want you to be a clean slate and learn the unique way that we operate at this company.” I responded “that’s not a problem for me. In fact, I didn’t even go to college.” The boss replied “well in that case, I’m sorry but you are not qualified for this job. Please pack up your things and leave immediately.”

[Lordofthedawgs]

Company did the same thing. “We don’t require a degree anymore.”

Mysteriously, every candidate that made it past the HR screening had a college degree

[charlesheller]

Back in the 80s (yes 40 years ago) I remember my Dad (may he rest in peace), saying that college degrees have become high school diplomas. He was right.

[mathisleyenda]

As a African American kid my Father and Grandfather would tell me every other day growing up “You can’t no longer make it in this world without a college degree” I went to college & after I graduated nobody cared I had one.

[brettburton]

This is your daily reminder that your local community college is a great investment and significantly reduces the cost of a BA degree if you transfer.

[sanninjiraiya]

There's this weird phenomenon about qualifications where if you become "too skilled" you actually decrease your competitive edge on the market. People's egos and desire to avoid paying out higher wages/salary or fear of having to compete to keep their employees ends up pushing some of the best trained/qualified/educated out.

[martypoll]

I got a bachelors in physics in 1979. I got a lab tech job. I got a masters in Mechanical Engineering in 1983. I got an engineering job. I graduated from a good school, UC Berkeley. No college debt for either degree. Worked 30 years and retired at 55. It was a very different world in my day.

[liz]

I’m in staffing & when a certification in a job posting is listed as “not required but preferred, ” we usually require it, but it’s our way to get more applicants just to keep numbers up. Sooo shady

[kylegonewild]

Something a lot of people leave out of the "just go do trades" bit is how hard that shit can be on your body and how much more likely you are to be injured on any given day. The money sounds great until heavy machinery explodes your shin or something and you don't have employer health insurance. This is coming from someone who has worked in multiple trades during my late teens and 20s within a family of tradesmen. There are real considerations to make.

[fieryelf]

When I was younger my father used to say that the only reason people of my generation got pushed into schools was because baby boomers took too much place on the job market and they needed to keep us out of the work force for as long as possible.

[pokemercenary]

STEM college grad here. I’ve seen these self taught “engineers” at work and their lack of education is very apparent. I know, higher education is corrupt, cost prohibitive, etc. we need to start demanding more out of our colleges. Relevant skills, affordable prices, two year degrees that make graduates more attractive to the workforce; we need thing like this.

[janp]

I found that college degrees were used as a barrier to prevent hiring/promoting certain people. When I had a lot of experience, but no degree I was constantly told I wasn't chosen because the person hired/promoted had a degree. So I went back to school and obtained a degree, MBA, and certifications in my field. My salary doubled and I find people actually listen to me now. Do I think my degree made the difference? No. I think I was in the right place at the right time and was hired/promoted by someone who saw my value, regardless of my degree. The only difference is now I have a bunch of student loans.

[KingUnKaged]

What a perfect ending for the Millenial Story Arc. Enter the workforce during an economic catastrophe, come of age just in time for homes to become unaffordable, then get lapped by upcoming generations because the value of your education been cut in half while your debt has doubled. What are the odds of catching this many L's?

[crow]

Having connections once agains proves to be the most valuable thing people can have. It’s insane how much you notice it once you realize how many people have their jobs through connections or nepotism, especially in high earning jobs

[poorwotan]

Here in Puerto Rico, the 'state' university pumps out grads yearly left and right. Yet, jobs are scarce. Thus, companies can ask for a degree for the lowest paid jobs. I swear I have seen listing for fast food cashier with a bachelors requirement...

[MonkeyMind]

It used to be that people would gain their education on the job. This even applied to doctors. People would apprenticeship to learn the skill-sets necessary for the line of work they got into. The benefit was that companies would need to invest in their employees, which made the employees more valuable to the company itself. It also wouldn't "cost" the employee to learn, as they could at least earn a menial wage while learning. The need for college could be mitigated by returning to this system, as would employee turnover. Win-win.

[Poopoocachoo]

My dad dealt with the college degree dilemma.
He’d been the top technician at several dealerships, was in national training roles, one of the first five people in the country to be certified to work on hybrids for Toyota
He tried to get jobs in the car industry above technician for years but was always met with “you need a college degree” thing

He eventually found a company that looked at his actual experience instead of a piece of paper and he’s earned a half dozen promotions since then

[rontom]

" We are gonna start with the good news first :D "
" college degrees are expensive "

[TheBlackWaltz]

I forsaw this happening 20 years ago when I was in high-school. College was never meant to be for everyone. It was always meant to be for specific careers that do require extra schooling. Most jobs do not require anything like that.

[meursault-eywq]

I have a four year degree, but I have a cleaning job because I can’t even get an “entry level” office job.