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from the we-don't-need-no-stinkin'-degree dept.
New Executive Order Fights Credential Inflation In The Federal Workforce:
On Friday, President Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to fill job vacancies based on merit, rather than require a minimum level of education for candidates seeking open positions. The order rightly recognizes that a job candidate with several years of relevant experience may be just as qualified, if not more so, than one who has collected a stack of advanced degrees.
"Employers adopting skills- and competency-based hiring recognize that an overreliance on college degrees excludes capable candidates and undermines labor-market efficiencies," the order reads. "Currently, for most Federal jobs, traditional education — high school, college, or graduate-level — rather than experiential learning is either an absolute requirement or the only path to consideration for candidates without many years of experience."
The order still allows federal agencies to prescribe minimum educational requirements for job candidates if the degree is legally required by the state or local government where the federal employee will be working. Additionally, they may consider a candidate's education if the degree "directly reflects the competencies necessary" to do the job.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday June 30 2020, @06:34PM (3 children)
I get that there are exceptions to the idea that having a degree in something means you're better at it than somebody without a degree. I also know, from experience, that having a degree in something means you are very likely to be better at it than somebody without that degree.
When you're hiring, you are necessarily working from imperfect and incomplete information. And that means that you decide based on probabilities. And yes, that does mean that all else being equal I'm going to prefer the degree. And the reputation of the school you got that degree from matters too: All else being equal, when hiring for a technically-oriented job I'm going to prefer the MIT grad over the University of Phoenix grad, on the grounds that the MIT grad was likely held to standards the University of Phoenix grad wasn't. Sure, there may be some dumb MIT engineering grads and some geniuses who dropped out of high school, but not knowing for sure which I'm looking at I'm going to bet the MIT grad is more likely to be the better choice.
And I would want the federal government to make and formalize similar thinking in an effort to have a high quality civilian workforce. For instance, I don't want the kid who totally knows Wordpress to be in charge of Healthcare.gov, I want someone who has both some theoretical knowledge and practical experience doing the kinds of things that website requires.
And like many other commenters, I'm concerned that this move is really about opening the door to political loyalty being the only standard that really matters in federal personnel practices. The Soviets tried that, and it didn't work out well for them, why would anyone expect it to work for us?
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 30 2020, @07:25PM (2 children)
I know nobody ever does this, but it might be wise to skim the order before assuming what it says. I'll help:
Basically, they want to copy what Google did. And while I may disagree with Google on a lot of things, they undoubtedly developed a system that, at one time, was capable of finding and hiring the best. And indeed there are many people who do not have any degree who worked at Google, but the vast majority did. And the vast majority of the vast majority there also had a technical degree from a well regarded school. But, as a consequence of their hiring system, those credentials are pretty meaningless - it's all about the skills and competencies. It just so happens that people who have the right skills and competencies also happen to have those credentials.
It's just an obviously better system. If you're after the skills/competencies then focus on the skills/competencies. The previous system created scenarios where somebody with an irrelevant/unrelated degree could be preferred over somebody with extensive experience doing exactly what the job was after. It was simply one of the many errors in our bureaucrazy. This *is* a good fix.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday June 30 2020, @11:25PM (1 child)
I'm ecstatic that I could work the entire math section, short of recalling the binomial theorem (I was able to derive it) and looking up the definition of a rod.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 01 2020, @09:53AM
Think you're one post off the one you meant to respond to! :D