We removed degree requirements. Here’s what we learned.

Let me tell you something we did that raised some eyebrows at the time, and that I’m now completely sure was right.

We removed degree requirements from the majority of our job descriptions.

Not as a PR exercise. Not to tick a box. Because we genuinely believe that credentials are a proxy for capability, and a not particularly reliable one, and that using them as a default filter means we miss people who would be exceptional.

What a degree actually tells you

I want to be honest about what I think a degree signals. In some roles, specific technical training matters, and where it does, we say so. But for the vast majority of commercial, marketing, and operational roles? A degree tells you that someone could afford to attend college (or was supported to), that they were organized enough to complete a multi-year program, and that they were perhaps eighteen years old.

None of that is worthless. But none of it is what I need to know to determine whether someone will be great in a specific role, at a specific company, right now.

“Credentials are a proxy. They are not the thing.”

What we look for instead

When we talk to people about what we’re actually assessing, it comes down to a few core things:

• Curiosity. Do you ask good questions? Do you actually care about learning?

• Adaptability. Can you change your mind when the evidence changes? Do you get defensive, or do you get curious?

• Communication. Can you explain complex things clearly? Can you listen as well as you speak?

• Drive. Is there evidence of initiative: things you pursued, built, or pushed forward without being told to?

These qualities show up in degrees, sometimes. They also show up in work history, side projects, career changes, how people talk about their experiences, and the questions they ask in interviews.

The signal is there. You just have to look for it in more places.

What we’ve found

I want to be careful here, because I think overpromising is its own kind of problem. Removing degree requirements doesn’t automatically make your hiring better. It’s one change, and it needs to be part of a broader commitment to structured, fair assessment.

But what we’ve found is that the pool of candidates we’re talking to is more diverse, in background, in experience, and in perspective. And the people we’ve hired through that wider pool have been outstanding.

Some of the most talented people I’ve worked with in my career did not have traditional credentials. Some of the least effective people I’ve encountered had excellent ones. The correlation, in my experience, is weak.

A challenge to other leaders

If you are still automatically filtering for degrees in roles where the specific technical content of a degree is irrelevant, I’d ask you to sit with that for a moment.

Not because you’re bad at hiring. But because that filter is making decisions for you, and it’s not always making them well.

The best thing about talented people is that they come from everywhere. The question is whether our processes are designed to find them.