Fueled by ballooning tuition and disillusionment with higher education, degreeless careers are on the rise. Here’s how to thrive in today’s workplace without a college degree.
Time was, if you earned a college degree you could unlock a plethora of high-paying careers in your field—and in many other industries entirely unrelated to your major. Having the degree was the thing; in many cases the actual skills to do the job could be learned as you went.
For better or worse, that scenario is fading away. Degreeless careers are on the rise, fueled by ballooning tuition, disillusionment with higher education and a growing sense of misalignment between the knowledge gained in the classroom and the skills employers actually hire for.
“We are beginning to break down the national narrative that you have to go to college to get a ‘good job’,” says Kathleen deLaski, author of “Who Needs College Anymore?” and founder and chairman of The Education Design Lab. “The fastest growing form of college enrollment is actually short term certificates and certifications at community colleges, rather than degrees.”
Further driving this shift is a perceived drop in academic achievement. “As we came out of the COVID era, high schools reported that fewer students were earning the test scores that made them confident about their ‘academic identity’ and the academic rigors of college,” says deLaski.
But the real dealbreaker is the fast-rising cost of college, especially for the debt-averse Generation Z. “Most folks know someone who is saddled by student debt,” says deLaski. “So they have more of a ‘buyer-beware’ view when considering a four year degree.”
I recently connected with deLaski to explore the rise of degreeless careers and why more young people are choosing this less-traveled road. Here’s what we covered.
Breaking free of the ingrained college-for-all mindset requires a level of independent thinking. In her book, deLaski describes four profiles of learners who might consider alternative pathways:
Though some employers have taken steps toward degree-agnostic, skills-first hiring, the shift is nowhere near complete or comprehensive. “For now, with a fairly soft job market, the degree still matters as a signal for employers,” acknowledges deLaski. “But a candidate with experience can get hired without a degree in fields that don’t require licensing, like teaching, some medical fields, engineering and law.”
Even if we reach peak skills-first hiring where the degree (or lack thereof) truly is irrelevant, there still has to be a litmus test to indicate at a glance whether a candidate is worth considering. Work experience is quickly becoming that test.
“For all applicants, degreed or not, experience is becoming more important than the piece of paper (outside of licensed fields such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, et cetera),” says deLaski. “Even if you have a degree, getting that 2–3 years’ experience that most job postings ask for at entry level is key.”
This presents a challenge especially to younger workers, who simply haven’t had the time yet to gain that experience. It’s a catch-22: to land the entry-level job, you must have experience, but to gain that experience, you have to have that entry-level job.
The answer is to expand our definition of work experience. It doesn’t have to be gained in the exact field where you want to be hired, nor does it strictly have to be in an employment setting. “Earning certifications, doing internships and apprenticeships, even volunteering, and leading a team or a project really add authenticity to your resume,” says deLaski.
In other words, work skills gained via personal experience are usually highly transferable to other industries. Work, learning and volunteer experience of any kind—if you can make the case for its relevance—is the new litmus test.
One of the biggest hurdles for many non-degreed workers is proving their qualifications. A college degree used to lend that credibility. Now, degreeless workers must find more creative and memorable ways to appear believably competent in the eyes of hiring managers.
“The best way to build credibility is to demonstrate agility and curiosity and show that you have taken time to understand the needs of the employer,” advises deLaski. One example is the story of a non-degreed young man she interviewed for her book.
“He was applying for a role that would require him to use a software program he’d never used. He figured out a way to practice with it at home before his interview. He didn’t master the tech, but was able to talk about his progress. The recruiter told me that demonstrated initiative and critical thinking and a hunger to figure things out. He got the job.”
Building credibility begins with the resume—and soon that bar will be set even higher “We are moving to a world where for at least half of jobs in America within 3–4 years, a bot will be reviewing your resume to decide whether a human should interview you,” warns deLaski. “This is partly because of the huge flood of fake applications produced by AI and partly because everyone’s resume looks the same (we are all using AI resume generators).
“How to stand out is the challenge. Experience, industry related credentials, AI literacy are all differentiators that the humans are programming the bots to look for.”
What are the best fields and skills to pursue if a college degree is not on your agenda? DeLaski believes artificial intelligence is the obvious answer—but not in the way you might think. “AI expertise skills are getting the most buzz, but the jobs most in need to support the scaling of AI are trade skills,” she says. “Electricians, HVAC, robotics and cybersecurity: these professions are required to build the compute capacity at data centers around the country.”
Another strong field is healthcare. “You see a shift among college majors this year from computer science to health professions,” she says. “There are many jobs in allied health, and health tech that are fairly easy to train for and allow workers to access a living wage without a degree.”
To train for these careers, check out what programs are available locally. “Community colleges have ramped these programs in all these fields over the past few years,” says deLaski. “And they are very affordable. The first certificates can get you employed, and those can stack to higher paying jobs as you earn more certifications. I call this the stepladder approach in my book.”
Degree or not, soft/professional skills are vital in every field. “So-called ‘human skills’ are becoming more important than ever,” says deLaski. “Employers have always ranked them highest, e.g., critical thinking, collaboration, empathy, problem solving and others.”
She notes that although we haven’t figured out how to credential these yet, it’s coming. “Some would argue that the recruiting bots can already infer these skills based on the experience you describe on your resume,” she says. “Feel free to put them in the skills section of your resume, but examples of them briefly listed in the context of job experiences is also important.”
Because human skills are often harder to train than technical abilities, a candidate who can demonstrate these traits will have an advantage in our shifting employment landscape. Professional skills are the asset that every employer wants—with or without a degree.
