I'm going to come straight out and say it. If you're hiring for a position that doesn't require a degree, yet you're requiring one, you're discriminating plain and simple. Plus you could be missing out on a potentially good candidate.
Hold on James, are you worried about this because you don't have a degree? Damn Skippy I am, but there are plenty others out there too that don't deserve to be discriminated against.
So here's one of the reasons I'm frustrated. Within the first few paragraphs of the article I came across this quote:
"College graduates are just more career-oriented," said Adam Slipakoff, the firm's managing partner. "Going to college means they are making a real commitment to their futures. They're not just looking for a paycheck."
This is a gross generalisation if I've ever heard one. A degree doesn't mean anyone is more career orientated (or is better learner, but that's a subject for another post). Perhaps they can't afford to go to university, which is an increasing problem as costs rise. Perhaps university isn't the best place for them to learn. Perhaps they're just tired the education mill by the time they graduate from high school.
What happened to the people without degrees that started in the mailroom and worked their way up to CEO? Isn't that part of the American dream? Are these people not career oriented?
Hint: they're still out there.
I've met plenty of people with degrees that haven't a clue what type of career they want, and I've met plenty of people without degrees that are very career focused. In fact some of the most talented software developers I know don't have a degree. One thing that they do have is a love of learning.
As I mentioned I don't hold a degree myself, yet I've had a sucessful career as a software developer and software development manager. When I started my career as a software developer, I actually had to unlearn what I was taught in formal education on that topic. For me, university just wasn't the right learning environment for me. I learn best by doing.
If someone has a passion, they don't have to have a degree they will learn what they need as they go along.
Obviously there are some careers that definitely require higher education, but a lot can be taught on the job.
This brings me to my next point. A few paragraphs later I came to this quote:
"When you get 800 résumés for every job ad, you need to weed them out somehow," said Suzanne Manzagol, executive recruiter at Cardinal Recruiting Group
If you're filtering on something that's irrelevant to the job, why stop there. Are you going to filter on gender, age or race? No because there are laws preventing that. What would you do if the government said you couldn't filter needlessly? When I hire, I put my money where my mouth is. I don't discriminate on any of the above.
Degrees also become even more irrelevant as a person progresses through their career. What if you have a candidate that has far more experience, but no degree?
I have an idea. Let's filter out candidates on something important, whether or not they can do the job and whether they have a passion for learning. If you have too many people applying for a position, that's s good thing.
I think I've made my point. I'll leave you with some rampant elitism:
"Besides the promotional pipelines it creates, setting a floor of college attainment also creates more office camaraderie, said Mr. Slipakoff, who handles most of the firm’s hiring and is especially partial to his fellow University of Florida graduates. There is a lot of trash-talking of each other’s college football teams"