Are You Still Using Degrees and GPAs as a Barrier to Entry | No BS Hiring Advice
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Ernst & Young in the UK has made the change. Other firms have, too. It’s time for you to consider making it to.
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Hi, I’m Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter and I’m back today with more No BS Hiring Advice to help you make better staffing and recruiting decisions.
Now, I read an article on Huffington Post. This is the way it Reads. Ernst and Young, one of the UK’s biggest graduate recruiters (So, they’re speaking about hiring new grads), has announced that will be removing the degree classification from its entry criteria, saying there was “no evidence” success at university correlates with achievement in later life. The accountancy firm is scrapping its policy of requiring a two to one and the equivalent of three B grades and A- level in order to open opportunities for talented individuals, “regardless of their background.”
So, here’s what E&Y’s managing partner for talent says. “Academic qualifications will still be taken into account and, indeed, remain an important consideration when assessing candidates as a whole, but will no longer act as a barrier to getting a foot in the door.”
So basically, what they’re saying is, instead of just getting a resume looking at the school and the degree, they want to make sure that the person might actually know this subject and it may use degrees, I want to be clear now, use degrees. They said it’s an important criteria as part of their assessment criteria, but they’re not going to make it the first one and stop there. They’re going to make online testing part of their criteria for evaluating people and then, from there, using degree as a secondary schema.
So, how is your firm doing things? Are you blocking access to talented people, because they couldn’t afford to go to a university? I had that happened with one client who refused to see a cyber security person, because, instead of going to college, they joined the military, came out and spent six years doing cyber security work for the Department of Defense, keeping bad guys from overseas from government systems. Bizarre, but that’s what happened.
Because he couldn’t afford it.
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The firm adopted what I can only call a classist attitude. You have to be a part of this particular group in order to join our fraternity, instead of just seeing, “is he qualified to do this role,” testing him in making the decision there. Then, if they found three individuals who might fit, they could use that as a tiebreaker, using whatever classification or justification, I should say, to you indicate that one individual might be better suited for their organization than another.
When all is said and done, your job is to hire exceptional talent. These days, with online training in a variety of different venues, exceptional people come in lots of different packages. Don’t block them just because they don’t have that four-year degree and because their parents couldn’t afford to send them to school, and they decided it wasn’t worth going $200,000 in debt to get that degree.
Think about it. $200,000 in debt is pretty common these days. Why do it if you get that experience elsewhere under different circumstances? A dear friend of mine was depressed for a while after she graduated because she had not hit her grades in school but she graduated with her degree, and, eventually started to ascend the ladder. I asked her, “okay, you’re out of school for six years. When you are on interviews, how many times you ever asked what your GPA was? “Somewhere around never,” was the answer. It should be a tiebreaker for kids coming out of school. It should be a non-issue for experienced people. But at the end of the day, it’s your choice. I’m giving you my advice.
I’m Jeff Altman. Hope you found this helpful. Visit TheBigGameHunter.us. There’s a lot more there that you can watch, listen to or read to help you with staffing. And, if I can help you with recruiting to fill . positions, call me my number 646-374-8656 or email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us NOTE: I AM NOT A RECRUITER ANY MORE. I COACH IN THE REALM OF JOB SEARCH, HIRING MORE EFFECTIVELY, MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP).
Hope you have a great day. Hope this was helpful. Take care.
[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMSKcnHxjQ4[/svp]
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ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. He is hired to provide No BS Career Advice globally. That can involve job search, hiring staff, management, leadership, career transition and advice about resolving workplace issues. Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2400 episodes.
I do a livestream on LinkedIn, and YouTube (on the JobSearchTV.com account) Tuesdays and Fridays at 1 PM Eastern. You can send your questions about job search, hiring better, management, leadership or to get advice about a workplace issue to me via messaging on LinkedIn or in chat during the approximately 30-minute show.
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Thank you for this video. I was concerned about this too. Too bad I’m not
in the UK and live here in the US. Now if only they can remove the
requirements of having industry-related experience, like in order to work
in finance in the public relations company (example), you have to have
“public relations” finance experience.
Me: huh?
Thank you for this video. I was concerned about this too. Too bad I’m not in the UK and live here in the US. Now if only they can remove the requirements of having industry-related experience, like in order to work in finance in the public relations company (example), you have to have “public relations” finance experience.
Me: huh?