CEO of Top Workplace Surveys Warns: Degrees Are Overrated as 23,000 Firms Weigh In Annually

Members of Gen Z and millennials who graduated from colleges are deeming their degrees useless. They could be correct. The CEO of Great Place to Work has stated that leading companies nowadays aren't "focused on degrees" at all. Instead, they emphasize "skills."

Employers are ditching their degree requirements , artificial intelligence is posing a threat to take away numerous jobs. corporate jobs And recent graduates are tearing their hair out, wondering if the time and money spent on obtaining their degree were worth it at all. worth it .

Currently, the CEO of Great Place to Work is affirming the change in focus: degrees have become unimportant and no longer hold significant weight for employers.

Each year, the firm conducts surveys involving more than 23,000 companies spanning 170 countries to identify what distinguishes the cream of the crop among employers. In collaboration with Cryptonesia , it heard from hundreds of thousands of employees to rank the Cryptonesia Top 100 Best Places to Work Listed here—and at the forefront—is CEO Michael Bush, who has dedicated the last ten years to analyzing recruitment processes and understanding the tendencies influencing our current employment landscape.

"Nearly everybody understands now that they’re overlooking excellent candidates because of their focus on degree requirements," Bush explains. Cryptonesia. That snowball is just getting bigger.

The predominant emphasis over the past half-decade—and within businesses featured on our roster—has been centered on skills and their enhancement," he notes. "Nowadays, they aren’t even discussing degrees. Instead, the conversation revolves around competencies. Which abilities do you possess, and which will be crucial moving forward? Lot of activity there.”

The CEO also mentions that the transition to skill-based hiring has gained global traction because fundamentally, degrees merely indicate someone's understanding of a particular topic rather than their ability to perform the required tasks effectively.

"When you aim to match intricate challenges with the individuals capable of resolving them, a degree isn’t beneficial," Bush points out.

What aids us is whether individuals possess perseverance, passion, and the necessary skills to introduce innovative solutions to tasks. Currently, AI is utilized to align people with challenges, intricate issues, and company needs. This alignment will be based on their skill set rather than their degrees. In this assessment, academic qualifications hold no significance.

The transition from valuing IQ to prioritizing EQ

What counts now isn’t merely the number of credentials you’ve accumulated; numerous high-level business leaders have demonstrated that Amazon’s Andy Jassy and Cisco’s David Meads to Kurt Geiger’s Neil Clifford and Apple’s Tim Cook have emphasized that success depends on one's attitude. In the meantime, figures like Google , Microsoft , IBM , Apple and most recently Deloitte , have all removed their longstanding educational prerequisites for positions .

Bush says the shift towards skills-first hiring started for two key reasons: A talent shortage and an increase in leaders with hiring powers who themselves haven’t got a degree.

“He points out that this has made people recognize it’s not so crucial,’ Adding, ‘It wasn’t like someone suddenly understood, oh perhaps there’s substantial talent out there without degrees.’”

For example: Mark Zuckerberg left college to start Facebook. Today, he leads the $1.4 trillion social media company. Meta and his “ hiring philosophy ” is to find people who have mastered a skill—like writing a novel about mermaids (his example).

Bush adds that many employers nowadays incorporate "some form of psychometric assessment into their process to gauge how self-aware an individual is."

So job seekers, be warned: You could see an increase in sneaky interview tests involving coffee cups , salt and pepper shakers, and offbeat questions put into something to see what you're truly capable of.

In his view, the change where college degrees are not the sole pathway to great chances is largely positive.

We strive to comprehend what individuals are doing so that everyone can have a chance to secure employment with our company, ensuring that each person also has the potential for advancement within the organization," Bush explains. "These elements are essential for making us a top-notch workplace where opportunities abound—for all employees—including those without formal degrees.

I’m not suggesting that these aren’t valuable; rather, they’re deeply personal choices," he explains. "Workplaces are increasingly valuing genuine performance over other factors that could obscure exceptional talent—degrees often being one such factor.

Generation Z and Millennials believe their diplomas are 'useless,' yet many still cover the costs.

Not only employers are claiming that degrees have become outdated; young individuals who possess these qualifications are assessing the present job market and deeming their degrees useless.

Actually, over fifty percent of Generation Z graduates believe their degree was a " waste of money ," as indicated by a recent survey from Indeed.

However, independent studies indicate that certain topics remain worthy of investigation, with STEM degrees resulting in salaries of over $100,000 per year post-graduation.

New data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reveals that aerospace engineering graduates lead in terms of mid-career earnings, with a median yearly salary of $125,000. Additionally, an independent study suggests that higher salaries are typically associated with advanced degrees, frequently those in medicine. unleashing career opportunities with salaries exceeding $200,000.

This tale was initially showcased on Cryptonesia