Employers across a range of industries are dropping a job requirement once considered a ticket to a higher paying job and financial security: a college degree.
Today’s tight labor market has led more companies instead to take a more skills-based approach to hiring, as evidenced on job search sites like Indeed and ZipRecruiter.
“Part of it is employers realizing they may be able to do a better job finding the right talent by looking for the skills or competencies someone needs to do the job and not letting a degree get in the way of that,” Parisa Fatehi-Weeks, senior director of environmental, social and governance (ESG) for hiring platform Indeed told CBS MoneyWatch.
To me, that’s basically what networking is in a nutshell
I’ve said it for years and years, it’s not what you know but who you know. That isn’t 100% true but it’s true more than it’s false.
It’s dumb, but really to get good jobs that tends to be the normal. I’m a great example of that. 7 months ago a previous boss reached out and offered me a new position making 50% more than I was. 100% remote, no on-call, no end-users, no hardware, etc. I jumped at it.
Would I have gotten it or even know there was an opening otherwise? Highly unlikely.
That’s at least my experience in IT, I doubt it’s unique.
I applied for an internal position 3 times as it came up frequently at a company I worked for for more money, and it wasn’t until I found out someone I met happened to know the person that position reports to talked me up that I actually got it. I never forgot got that and it definitely reflected in me leaving eventually.
As a recipient of something similar…I agree, but I wish it wasn’t that way. I got my current gig 2 years ago and just got a promo to senior with a sizeable pay raise and bonus. I work remote and out of state from a zero income tax state while keeping my HCOL pay scale.
I think I could go higher, but I’m against the same thing that is helping me out in my current position.
I also wish it wasn’t that way, but if you’ve ever tried to hire for a job requiring specific skills you’ll understand why it is that way.
A vast majority of candidates are completely unqualified and/or poor workers. By poor worker, I don’t mean someone that does their job 9-5 and goes home. I mean the dudes that sit on Reddit all day or simply don’t work most of the day and then blame their spouse/kid/dog/cousin/etc as to why they are unproductive. I’m sorry, but if it takes you 2 days to change the text on a label in a web project, then you are slacking. I say this as someone intimately familiar with the web project and understand exactly the work needed.
Networking solves a lot of that. I reach out to excoworkers all the time because they have proven they are both knowledgeable and not a slacker.
We are social animals after all. Networking will never go away for that reason. My best hires/promotions were people I already knew the strengths and opportunities of. The odds of getting a quality candidate are much higher if you already have a relationship with them.