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30 years as a design engineer, 52 patents, can’t get past the first round phone screen.

Why? He doesn’t have a degree.

In 2025, the four-character acronym, B.S., has become the great talent filter, screening out the very people who might 10x your team.

The degree inflation problem has reached absurd heights. Companies demand bachelor's degree requirements for roles that didn't need them a decade ago, even when the actual work hasn't changed. We're rejecting proven innovators for failing to check an arbitrary box that measures their ability to navigate academic bureaucracy, not build groundbreaking hardware.

But there’s hope.

California just removed degree requirements from nearly 30,000 state jobs, with plans to double that number. Forty-five percent of companies plan to eliminate bachelor's degree requirements in 2024, continuing a trend where 55% already removed them in 2023. Major tech players like IBM, Google, and Apple are prioritizing skills over credentials.

History's greatest hardware innovators would struggle in today's hiring market. Thomas Edison had months of formal schooling. The Wright Brothers never graduated high school. Henry Ford skipped college entirely. These men literally invented the industries we work in today, yet they'd be auto-rejected by most modern ATS systems.

The irony cuts deep, we're designing tomorrow's technology using yesterday's hiring practices.

The key is to recognize that experience and degrees measure different things. A flashy degree may indicate that they know the latest theories; a 30-year veteran knows which theories actually work under real-world constraints. Both have value, but they're not interchangeable.

Smart companies are finding balance. They're creating multiple pathways: traditional degree routes for theoretical foundation, apprenticeships for hands-on learning, and skills-based assessments for experienced practitioners. California's "Career Passport" system will combine academic records with verified skills from military service, job training, and real-world experience.

If you’re hiring, buck the status quo and value the person’s drive to solve problems and build innovative products.

If you’re searching, focus on what you can build instead where you learned to build it.

Let’s change hiring practices for the better.

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