The Must-Read Articles for Talent Professionals This Week

If you’re a proponent of skills-based hiring, you may have a new use for your shredder: Ripping apart the so-called “paper ceiling” for candidates without degrees.

“In the past two years,” writes The Financial Times, “some 50 companies, foundations, and other recruiters have joined a U.S.-based campaign to tackle an invisible barrier: the ‘paper ceiling’ of degrees — which is increasingly viewed as unfairly blocking job opportunities for talented people who did not go to college.”

FT goes on to highlight research that indicates many companies post job ads requiring degrees — when many of their existing employees holding the same or similar positions don’t have degrees themselves.

At a time when many of the most well-known and prestigious U.S. colleges have a price tag approaching US$100,000 per year for their undergraduate programs, candidates are justifiably questioning the investment.

“My particular concern,” Peter Cappelli, author and professor at The Wharton School, tells FT, “was pushing so many people into college thinking it was going to be a good investment for them. In some fields, you can advance by getting a master’s degree but, in others, there is no good evidence that these things matter. Pick a job title and there’s a master’s degree.”

To learn more about which companies are leading the charge in a skills-over-degrees approach to hiring — and even some downsides to this strategy — be sure to check out the top spot on our list below of must-read articles for talent professionals.

And further down our list, you can also learn what industry leader Lars Schmidt believes is the hidden fallout of the Great Resignation’s hiring boom; what ageism can look like in today’s hiring market; and why recent college grads are having such a hard time finding a job.