• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Submissions
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Jun 1, 2023
  • Startup
    • Creating a Plan
    • Funding a Startup
    • Franchise Center
    • Getting Your Office Ready
    • Making Your Business Official
    • Marketing Your New Business
    • Personal Readiness
  • Run & Grow
    • Customer Service
    • Human Resources
    • Innovation
    • Legal
    • Operations
    • Risk Management
  • Leadership
    • Best Practices
    • Communication
    • Green Initiatives
    • Open Culture
    • Strategic Planning
    • People Skills
  • Sales & Marketing
    • Advertising and Lead Generation
    • Marketing Innovations
    • Marketing Plans
    • Online Marketing
    • Relationships
    • Sales Activities
  • Finance
    • Budgeting and Personal Finance
    • Payments and Collections
    • Tax and Accounting
    • Pricing Strategy
    • Working with Investors
    • Working with Lenders
  • Tech
    • eCommerce
    • Hardware
    • Software
    • Security
    • Tech Reviews
    • Telecom
  • Shop

SmallBizClub

Helping You Succeed

taxbandits banner
Home / Run and Grow / Human Resources / Should You Hire the Person or the Degree?
Should You Hire the Person or the Degree?

Should You Hire the Person or the Degree?

2209 Views

Oct 5, 2016 By SmallBizClub

With only 60% of college students saying they feel prepared for the workforce and only 23% of employers agreeing, it’s probably a wise idea to focus on more than just the college degree when hiring.

Job candidates today need to possess a variety of skills and talents, and have a great personality to boot. For people who haven’t earned a degree this could mean they have a similar or even better chance at scoring a great job as those who have attended a university or college.

If you had to pick one—experience or a degree—which would you choose as more valuable? Let’s take a look at 3 considerations in choosing the right person for the job.

Soft skills

Don’t underestimate the power of “soft” skills, or people skills. If students want to feel more prepared for the workforce and perform well in their academic environment, they should start developing these skills in school. Soft skills training at the collegiate level will pay off when they enter the workforce.

On the flip side, having prior work experience is particularly useful because those employees have already been exposed to the soft skills necessary to work with others, proving their value up front.

A few examples of soft skills:

  • Work ethic – willing, hard-worker, loyal, takes initiative, helps co-workers, on time
  • Flexible – fitting into the company’s culture, willing to learn from criticism, teachable, adaptable, problem-solver
  • Communicator – listens, speaks and writes well, high level of emotional intelligence
  • Interpersonal skills – empathetic, friendly, social, confident, happy

A survey by CareerBuilder showed that 77% of employers were seeking candidates with soft skills; 16% of the respondents considering soft skills more crucial than hard skills. In other words, being able to successfully interact with others is more crucial than hard skills for at least 16%.

Education

Lucky for most people, education comes in many forms. Most employers these days aren’t questioning whether a qualified candidate attended a brick and mortar location or earned their degree online from an accredited college. The debate is becoming less of a debate. Even with the recent shakeup of for-profit schools going under, such as ITT Technical Institute, some are still thriving while some will be forced to do better in the future if they want to keep their doors open.

A person’s education and the manner in which it’s acquired is only part of the equation on whether they will get hired for the job. While the applicant was in college, did they work on the side and during the summers? Did they volunteer or take a gap year abroad? Did they participate in the whole college experience?

“Human factors, faculty accessibility and student engagement in curricular and extracurricular activities” are all significant to a student’s college experience, writes Boston University professor Jay Halfond. Students who utilize their school’s resources while attending school could pay off later in the job market.

Experience

We tend to think of college graduates as self-motivated and independent workers, even though a degree doesn’t directly translate to a good work ethic.

A drive to succeed is just as likely to come from those with hands-on work experience, associate degrees and other types of certifications. Colleges aren’t necessarily teaching real-world skills. Who would you rather hire, someone with a four-year college degree with no work experience or someone with four years of relevant experience but no formal degree?

There’s no doubt that in many cases having a college degree can lead to better, higher paying jobs. Often those types of jobs require a degree of some sort, anyway. But having a good skillset and the right personality for the job is just as important as the degree.

Successful business leaders have at least one thing in common: They are generally good decision makers. Of course they are human and make mistakes, but developing high-level decision making skills can be learned regardless of what degree they earned in school.

melissa-davidsonAuthor: Melissa Davidson is a freelance writer with a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Montana. She’s a former newspaper reporter who now frequently writes about women in business, social issues, mental health and the occasional pop culture story. Follow Melissa on Twitter @madtris

Filed Under: Human Resources Tagged With: Education, Employees, Hiring, Team

SmallBizClub

SmallBizClub

SmallBizClub.com is dedicated to providing small businesses and entrepreneurs the information and resources they need to start, run, and grow their businesses. The publication was founded by successful entrepreneur and NFL Hall of Fame QB Fran Tarkenton. We bring you the most insightful thinking from industry leaders, veteran business owners, and fellow entrepreneurs. That means guides to the complex worlds of financing and technology. It means business owners sharing their personal stories—both successes and failures— through articles, video, and most important, answers to your small business questions. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

Related Posts

  • Corporate Dining Services: Making Mealtime Easier for Businesses
  • Why Hiring a Competent Financial Expert is Essential for Business Growth
  • 5-tips-for-hiring-only-the-best-startup-talentTraining Recruiters for a Search Agency: 5 Things to Consider

Primary Sidebar

Random

4 Helpful Numbers Every Entrepreneur Needs on Speed-Dial

Mar 28, 2014 By SmallBizClub

10 Amazing Benefits of SMS Marketing

Mar 27, 2018 By Brian Mikes

How to Pick a Business Model That is a Match for You

Jun 29, 2018 By Marty Zwilling

12 Unspoken Rules for Creating Catchy Business Names

Oct 24, 2017 By Charles Crawford

10 Quick Ideas for Producing Video Content

Oct 7, 2013 By SEER Interactive

Footer

About Us

Small Biz Club is the premier destination for small business owners and entrepreneurs. To succeed in business, you have to constantly learn about new things, evaluate what you’re doing, and look for ways to improve—that’s what we’re here to help you do.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 by Tarkenton Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved | Terms | Privacy