Job Requirement Creep Has Reached A Ridiculous Level

In 1779, Thomas Jefferson proposed to the state of Virginia an all-encompassing educational system consisting of primary and secondary schools as well as college. A century later, government-paid primary and secondary schooling had been accepted, but to this day, college is not free, even though a four-year degree is treated as essential to getting a decent job.

Perhaps the real question is this: How relevant is a college degree in today’s job market?

Granted, certain jobs require higher education. I, for one, would never go to someone for medical treatment or tax advice if the consultant didn’t have an advanced degree in that field.

But let’s talk about jobs that traditionally didn’t require a four-year degree. Jobs like sales. Jobs dealing with the public in a service sector. Is a person with a college degree a better fit for such a job than someone with many years of experience in similar positions?

If a janitorial position opened up, who would be most qualified, the applicant who has a high school diploma and was a dishwasher at a local restaurant where he also swept up, mopped floors and vacuumed the carpets or the one who has a master’s in engineering?

I called or wrote to more than a dozen employers who were running ads for help and requesting a four-year degree. Some didn’t even care what the degree was in. (They didn’t return my calls or answer my e-mail.)

I did talk to two human resource directors, one with a major state agency and the other with a large local company. Both were very willing to talk. I was told that even though they would prefer someone with a degree, they give more weight to experience than to college work.

An insurance company referred my call to its corporate home office in Southern California, even though the hiring was to be done locally.

I have been an insurance agent. While with one company, I led production for all agents in two states. I don’t have a degree but I was able to talk to people and, more important, to listen to them. I could learn how to look up rates in a policy book. I was able to pass a required state test. I went to a company-run school to learn about its policies.

Now, insurance companies are looking for only college graduates. Is that necessary?

The one that really took my breath away was a car rental agency looking for someone with a four-year degree to be a counter person who will rent you a car. I’ve rented a lot of cars from several different agencies over the years. They all do the same things.

I was told by one car rental agency the reason for the college requirement is that every agent is a “manager trainee,” which requires a higher level of knowledge.

I later learned the new “trainees” work 60 to 80 hours a week for about $24,000 a year. That works out to between $5.76 and $7.69 an hour. Who but a kid right out of college and dying for his first real job would work those hours for that amount of money? I was told the dropout rate is very high.

To get a better perspective on this college degree requirement, I went to the 1994 World Almanac. It says that 81 percent of the people in the United States over 25 have completed high school. That’s good. It shows a large percentage of us are able to read, write and do basic math, at least.

However, only 20.3 percent of the same age group in the United States have a four-year college degree or more education. Washington state scores a little better, with 22.9 percent in that category.

Still, an prospective employer who screens out everyone with less than four years of college is limiting the field of applicants to one-fifth of the population.

The only conclusions I can draw from my research is that requiring a college degree for what traditionally has been a non-degreed position is nothing more than a way of thinning the field of applicants for a given job.

So, what advantage does an employer gain by hiring someone with a degree? There’s the possibility a person with college training will leave for a more mentally challenging job that pays more money within a few years. Thus, the employer can start the graduate at a lower hourly wage by calling him or her a “management trainee.” These manager hopefuls will be nonunion because of their management-trainee status. In the event of a strike, they will be available to work.

Also, because they most likely will leave within five years and many companies vest retirement plans after five years, it will save the company pension investments.

How does having a person with a college degree help you as a consumer when you rent a car, buy life insurance or receive a bill?

It doesn’t.

My other conclusion is that, in an employer’s market, you can’t fight the system. So, if you don’t want to be a doctor or an engineer, get a degree in something you like, like art history or linguistics. Most places just want a degree.

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