THE WORTH OF A UNIVERSITY DEGREE IN HIRING

We have developed a word when it comes to recruitment and we call it a limiter – it’s something that puts a limit to things. From experience you should avoid unnecessary limiters, for example if you say “We are looking for an Engineer. You need to have a university degree in engineering.” Then ask yourself “Why say something like that?” When you say “You must have a university degree” what you really mean is someone who can produce the products an engineer is supposed to be able to produce.

A university degree does not mean that a person can give you the results his degree says he can. Look, an Engineer produces certain products and if he or she has a degree it still has to be seen if they can make those results come about.

Maybe there is a guy who left school early but went into a company and actually worked as an engineer. Well, he doesn’t have that degree you so feverishly demand, but today he might be a better engineer than the guy who studied theory at university for years. Maybe this guy who has no degree has actually built two bridges, a hotel and designed an airplane, but you loose this guy as he can’t apply for your job even though he has been working in the area for 10 years and has stellar products. It’s all because you placed a limiter on who you are going to hire. So, you need to watch this when hiring and in your job ads.

Basically, with this limiter of “university degree” if there are lots of people who could be interested and only a small amount have a university degree, when we include this limiter we have excluded all these other people. When you use limiters you should put the right limiters and degrees are usually not very useful limiters because you might exclude some extremely productive people who don't happen to have the degree. Use limiters only when you absolutely have to have them.

HERE IS WHAT I NORMALLY ASK OUR CLIENTS

Here is what I normally ask our clients “Here are two guys; one guy has a degree and is a fairly low producer and the other guy knows much more about how to do this kind of job, he has learned through practice and he is extremely productive but he doesn't have any degree. Which one are you most interested in.”

And they always say “Yeah, the productive guy.”

So then I ask “Why the hell are you writing about a university degree in your ad!!”

And they go “Yeah, that's maybe not so smart.”

Exactly that’s stupid! Because a degree can do no work and two people having the same degree normally means one of them can really do something and the other one can’t. When you look at a school grade, let’s say it’s marked from one to one hundred – one person might have eighty five based completely on rote memory while another has seventy five based completely on understanding. Who will be able to do most? The seventy five guy. I am just saying don't use stupid limiters. I am not saying a degree is no good – I am just saying it is no good to have as a limiter.

Another stupid limiter I often see is “You need to know Microsoft Office” or “Microsoft Excel” and you will see it in many ads, “You need to know this…” Now, what about a very productive person who doesn't know Microsoft Office but he is intelligent and productive. How long does it take to learn Microsoft Office? Two days? So, we are limiting out these productive guys. He cannot do this job because he doesn't know Microsoft Office. Stupid, don't put in those limiters.

LIMITERS IN HIRING – HONESTY AND DISHONESTY

There is another very important thing to know: the only people who care about the limiters you place are honest and productive people. Dishonest people don’t care; they go “You say I have to be excellent at handling Microsoft Office? You say it is very important. Well, I opened Microsoft Office once – I know how to do that, so I will send in an application.” They don’t care about your limiters.

The very productive ethical person thinks that when you write you have to know it, you mean what you are saying. He feels “Yeah, I just know it a little bit, I don't know it perfectly, so I can't apply for this job.”

I almost cry when I see those kinds of ads “You have to be very good in English.” If it's absolutely needed to speak English in this job then put that limiter in but if it's something that would be nice if the person could speak English, don't put it in as a limiter. You can still, if you have a lot of productive people applying, choose later what you want. You often find that one guy is unbelievably productive but he doesn't know English and it would be great if he knew English. But if he is very productive he can even learn English, and you will find that it is very easy to train productive people.

THE WORTH OF A UNIVERSITY DEGREE IN HIRING - SUMMARY

So this was just a short lesson about university degrees and settings limits when you are hiring people. Some of the most productive people you ever want to see might stand outside those limits.

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