
More Companies That No Longer Require a Degree - peter_d_sherman
https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/no-degree-required/
======
dbattaglia
My own anecdotal experience working with corporate recruiters and hiring
managers is that, no one really cares about education compared to experience
(outside of maybe a "wow, nice" when seeing a PhD), but they are all scared to
not put the typical boilerplate "Bachelors degree or related experience" line
at the top of the job post. I've noticed a trend lately for more progressive
companies to leave this bit out in the name of diversity, hopefully this
catches enough that it just becomes the norm.

Note that I'm a software engineer who dropped out of college, so you can take
what I say with a few grains of salt. :)

~~~
amrx431
Not applicable globally. For example in my country a degree is an absolute
must.Even those companies that dont care about degrees in US and have their
subsidiary here, do a serious gatekeeping with respect to educational
qualifications. You must have an undergrad degree in CS and that too from
reputed schools.

~~~
azamatms
Which country is that?

~~~
midoreigh
India for example

~~~
booleandilemma
Don’t a lot of them cheat there anyway?

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/worldviews/wp/20...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/worldviews/wp/2018/02/09/india-
tried-to-stop-cheating-in-school-so-half-a-million-students-just-skipped-
exams/)

[https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/03/india-
school-e...](https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/03/india-school-exam-
season-cheating-mafia-)

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jarym
There are many fields where a formal education is quite important (e.g. Legal,
Medical, etc.)

But there's many more where the requirement to have a degree seems counter
intuitive. Universities were about expanding and democratising learning and
seeking new knowledge and understanding. I never understood why people leave
university expecting a job out of it - it may have worked for the previous
generation because few had degrees but I doubt it works now.

Hopefully, in the near future, students will be enrolling in universities
because they want to learn - not because they feel its their only ticket to a
decent job.

~~~
celim307
> I never understood why people leave university expecting a job out of it

Maybe because universities have relentlessly touted alumni employee numbers
and advertised themselves as an avenue to secure a job for decades now

~~~
anoncoward111
This is the correct answer.

It would be like an opiate manufacturer advertising "FDA approved pain
management solutions" for decades, and then turning around and saying "well
you never should have expected to avoid becoming addicted to opiates."

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geggam
I have been working in Silicon Valley area companies for over 10 years and a
degree or my lack thereof has never been an issue.

I also have had PhD's reporting to me.

It is interesting when I do run into companies who think a degree is important
and I tend to compare them in a less than favorable light to those who do not.

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pnloyd
There are a lot of retail jobs listed here. I don't think they ever required a
degree..?

~~~
zrobotics
Most of these jobs never did--did anyone think they couldn't get a retail job
or warehouse job without a degree? Starbucks barista? Seriously?

It's also wrong about listed jobs:they list Publix as hiring pharmacists. That
job absolutely requires a degree, I know of no way to get liscenced without
one. So overall this is just crap, the only mildly interesting info was IBM
being listed.

~~~
CynicalDio
I used to work at Publix. They don't hire pharmacists without degrees, as it
requires a PharmD and being licensed with the state, however they do, very
rarely, hire pharmacy technicians without any kind of degree and train them on
the job. I have only seen this happen one time.

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iamleppert
It’s not an issue getting a job if you’re smart and can manage to get some
experience under your belt, and you can pass the technical interview.

That said, I still wish I would have had the opportunity to go to school. I’m
increasingly finding I don’t have the same kind of network had I went to
school.

It’s possible to build a network while you are working but it’s much harder
because you are at the mercy of your employer and the work power dynamic is
different than university. You are also at the mercy of your employer and the
people he chooses to surround you with, and don’t have as much control or
exposure as I feel you would in university.

At least for me employers always talk a big game when it comes to investing in
their employees education but I’ve never experienced that personally. They are
too focused on the sprint, the next sprint, the quarterly OKR’s and with most
of their employees not lasting more than a year or two why invest in someone
long term? This puts all the effort on the employee who must then learn on
their own time in addition to working and making their boss & co-workers
happy.

The last one is killer for me. Most of the people you meet at work aren’t
entrepreneurial. I think there’s a reason why a lot of people start companies
from people they know in school. Many of the people I’ve meet throughout my
career in tech don’t even like tech, they’re just working a job. I feel like
at a university it would be easier to filter these people out of your
professional network, where as at work you can be stuck with them for years.
It’s easy to drop or add a class and be exposed to new people but try dropping
a team or a boss.

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sakopov
Does Google seriously hire mechanical engineers without a degree and proper
certification?

~~~
8_hours_ago
Not all mechanical engineering work requires a Professional Engineer

~~~
sandworm101
Then it isnt engineering work. Engineers are professionals, acredited by
societies and licensed by governments. It is akin to the differance between
simple "medical work" done by any number of people with the skills, and
medical doctoring.

~~~
pandler
In the US, there’s a difference between a professional Engineer and a
Professional Engineer. Professional Engineer requires certification (I think
they even give you a ring or something), but you can still work professionally
as an Engineer without the certification.

The difference, roughly, if I remember correctly, is that Professional
Engineers are the only ones who can “sign off” on work and essentially assume
liability. Therefore, you can be an uncertified Engineer as long as you’re
working under someone certified or if your work doesn’t require sign-off from
someone certified.

Are there any PE’s here that can tell me if that’s correct?

~~~
craftyguy
Reminds me of this lawsuit, where an engineer was sued by Oregon for
criticizing traffic infrastructure (a red light camera) and calling himself an
engineer:

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-
mix/wp/2017/12/0...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-
mix/wp/2017/12/08/criticizing-red-light-cameras-is-not-a-punishable-offense-
oregon-concedes/)

------
tr0ut
anecdotal disclaimer -- I think I've worked with more brilliant people with no
degrees or uncompleted education. They just had more drive and do not let
anything hold them back. They do not need to be told what to do. Not saying
that the rest of the people that I worked with 9.8/10 that had degrees were
not great. Just there was something positively different about the people I
encounted without it.

~~~
Kranar
I don't have a degree or formal education but I managed to work for Google
about 10 years ago and left to start a company that engages in HFT.

What I'd argue is that your observation is a form of survivorship bias. Of the
very small people who manage to succeed without a degree, those people will
likely have a great deal of drive, self-motivation, and other traits to
compensate for that lack of degree. I'd then argue that in the long term,
those traits end up having a much greater impact on your ability to succeed
than an education.

But that doesn't mean not having an education is overall a good thing. The
majority of people without a degree will be absolutely incompetent software
developers compared to those with a degree... you would just have never met
them because they don't last long enough to work with you.

~~~
tr0ut
I certainly was not trying to argue that. And I said it was my own experience
(serendipity). I also agree with what you're saying.

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jaclaz
I don't know but I would find hard to believe that for most of these jobs:

>4\. Costco Wholesale

>Company Rating: 3.9

>Hiring For: Cashier, Stocker, Pharmacy Sales Assistant, Bakery Wrapper, Cake
Decorator, Licensed Optician, Cashier Assistant, Depot Solutions Functional
Analyst, Forklift Driver, Seasonal Help & more.

a degree was _ever_ required.

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Synroc
Is having non-CS a problem if it’s still STEM? I have a math BS

~~~
jjeaff
If you can code and have a math degree, I'd say that could be a benefit in the
eyes of lots of employers.

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Synroc
That's interesting! What would make it benefit in your opinion?

~~~
SamReidHughes
Lots of people who think they're bad at math will try CS, but relatively few
will try a math major.

