Why a college degree can be a blunt and even lazy way for evaluating talent

Market Watch
Alessandra Malito
Mar. 21, 2017

There’s a harrowing disconnect in the hiring world: While job seekers say entry-level jobs are hard to come by, employers say entry-level candidates are hard to find.

Almost half of employers (43%) said it was hard to source entry-level candidates, according to new research from The Rockefeller Foundation, a New York-based humanitarian foundation, and research firm Edelman Intelligence. Employers are concerned with retaining this talent, as well. “For a long time, a college degree has been a proxy for skills and capabilities,” said Abigail Carlton, managing director at the Rockefeller Foundation. “In reality, it is a pretty blunt proxy.”

Job degrees are indications of a person’s capabilities, but they’re often not even relevant for the entry-level jobs. For example, 90% of the employed recent college graduates from the Rockefeller Foundation’s survey said they were learning skills on the job, compared with 49% who said they aren’t using the skills they learned in college.

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