This post originally appeared on Medium on December 1.
The sheer number of young people wasting away in classrooms today because they think they have to be there is staggering. Fed by movies and popular culture that draw a (false) direct correlation between higher education and future success in life, they imagine that they will be out on the streets in no time if they don’t get that coveted bachelor’s degree.
Almost parodying Mike Myers’ Dr. Evil in Austin Powers, adults around them keep repeating the phrase, One Million Dollars! in lifetime earnings, associated with getting the college degree. As if the money just lands in a person’s bank account because they’ve completed four years of drudgery that is “required” by HR people at stodgy firms.
The fact of the matter is that this simply isn’t true. You don’t need a degree to get a good job — you don’t even need a degree to get many jobs that say they require a degree.
The degree is simply a tacked-on additional filter for HR departments to get candidates that they think they need. They imagine the ideal candidate for the role they are trying to fill and just assume that this person probably has a degree. (They are almost certainly also influenced by popular culture’s depiction of the non-degreed as stoners, losers, and the unambitious. Again, an inaccurate picture for many.)
Here’s the truth that is hidden from high schoolers and college students as they are isolated from businesses and entrepreneurs for 12–16 years:
What you can do and can deliver on matters a whole lot more than a credential.
The afterthought of the degree is becoming more and more that — just an afterthought relegated to HR departments in the stodgiest of companies. Even Earnst and Young, a major accounting firm and what is traditionally thought of as “stodgy” recognizes the above truth and removed the requirement.
The idea that requiring a degree automatically attracts the best candidates is silly.
Business owners know this. Many have shifted from degree requirements to work experience requirements, finding that to be more tightly correlated with a successful hire.
Recent college grads know this. I’ve spoken with many-a-recent grad who feels jipped over the idea that they had to go to school to land a great job.
The people who benefit most from learning this are those who can save themselves tens (or hundreds!) of thousands of dollars, four (or more!) years of their lives, and can avoid having to feel their spirits crushed under work in which they find no meaning.
I am fortunate enough to regularly interact with entrepreneurs and businesspeople who are hiring and they all tell me the same thing…
Good help is really, really hard to find. We want people who are willing to try something different, to work hard, and who don’t feel entitled.
That’s really hard to find in the population of recent college graduates (not impossible, but college grads burdened by debt and years of being told school would land them a great job tend to be needier on the job).
These are just a few of the very recent, very solid, and very real positions I’ve been told need to be filled. These companies don’t care one way or another if you have a degree — they want to know if you can actually put your money where your mouth is and follow through on your work:
Digital Marketing and Publishing
Tech B2B Sales and Marketing
Wholesale Management
Marketing
Culinary Executive Apprentice
Events Management
Tech B2B Sales and Business Development
And these are just the ones that have come to me.
If you’re a hard-working, ambitious young person who feels like they are wasting away in their university or college classrooms, being forced to pay to learn things that seem totally irrelevant and feel more like a detour, don’t let anybody tell you you have to be there. You don’t.
The alternative path — going and delving into work and a lifetime of self-education — isn’t easy, but it’s a real option. For many, like myself, it is worth it.