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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   2940 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 25, 2024

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Credentials seem to matter most when the output of workers is not legible to their bosses.

I feel like this is one of those things that will vary a great deal by position and industry. My impression is that in industries with hard outputs the importance of degrees has declined precipitously in the last decade or so.

It does vary a lot but I think the heuristic generally works.

There are two reasons why I think it works:

  1. In cases where the worker has more technical skills than the boss, like engineering, it makes sense to outsource the training and skill assessment to professionals. Physical engineering, and medicine are often in this category.
  2. In cases where worker output is just vague or unmeasurable, bosses need to justify why they are hiring someone to their bosses. A degree is a decent and widely accepted justification. Certain parts of marketing / HR / corporate communications / legal. Can all be like this.

No one cares about degrees in sales jobs, because sales is often one of the easiest things for bosses to track.

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