No One Cares About Your College Degree Anymore

Thomas Friedman makes the case today that employers don't much care anymore about what kind of degree a person has or where it's from. Online university? Ivy League? Self-taught? It doesn't matter, writes Friedman in the New York Times, as long as applicants can answer affirmatively the following question: "Can you add value?" And doing so in today's fast-changing labor market requires job candidates to be entrepreneurial and ever-evolving.

Friedman talks to the founders of a start-up company that acts as a kind of filtering service between clients looking to fill job openings and potential employees. “A degree document is no longer a proxy for the competency employers need," says one of the founders, because many of the “skills you need in the workplace today are not being taught by colleges.” More so than ever, it's up to individuals to understand that, writes Friedman. These days, a handsome diploma or resumé is far less important than "what you can do and what you can continuously reinvent yourself to do." Click for his full column. (More education stories.)