How many readers have had the experience of finding their dream job on an online job board, scrolling down through the job description with delight, only to hit the job requirements section to find a qualification they lacked? It could be years of experience, type of experience, certification, or licensure, for example. Or, education.
The Barrier of Education Requirements
For more than 100 million American workers without a college degree, such a degree requirement effectively closes the door on them. Of course, job requirements included in a job posting aren’t binding on an employer, who can choose to waive those qualifications. But many applicants simply won’t apply to a job that they don’t meet the posted requirements for.
In addition, many companies may have internal policies aligned with posted job requirements that can be administratively burdensome for a hiring manager to bypass. While this is undoubtably frustrating and disheartening to potential applicants, employers also often do themselves a disservice by turning away large numbers of capable applicants.
The Degree Discrepancy in the Labor Force
Only about one-third of the American labor force holds a bachelor’s degree or higher. That means, of course, that about two-thirds don’t have one. A Harvard Business Review report titled “Dismissed by Degrees” reported that an overwhelming majority of survey respondents in most industries studied agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that a four-year degree requirement results in them being screened out as qualified candidates.
This mismatch between the qualifications required to perform a job and the qualifications required by an employer for someone to be hired for that job has harmful consequences for both applicant and employer, as well as the broader economy.
There are a number of reasons companies often require greater qualifications than an open position actually requires. When it comes to education requirements specifically, we need to explore the concept of “degree inflation,” what it is and how it’s come to impact so many organizations and their job searches.
This is a subject we’ll take up in our next post on this topic.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.
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