Lisa Asks:

I've found that many of today's companies will not entertain the idea of an employee who does not have a college degree. In many cases, they will not even let you apply without one. Is this really the norm or are companies beginning to look at experience more? Which do you value more - college degree or several years experience?

Hi Lisa,

Unfortunately, it’s true that many employers are using education as a key filter when considering applicants, despite it being a very low predictor of job success (just ask Steve Jobs, college dropout). However, what many may not realize is that using experience as a filter is not much better.

Here’s what the research shows with respect to the validity (relationship to job success) of education and experience:

Education – validity of 0.11
Experience – validity of 0.18

[The U.S. Department of Labor states that a validity coefficient is excellent if larger than 0.35, good if between 0.21 and 0.35, poor if less than 0.21.]

I know that research statistics can be a little dry, but the fact is that these qualities were studied with thousands and tens of thousands of employees, and clearly showed their relationship to job success. If we really thought about it, these research results make complete sense. Having ten years of experience in a role does not mean that one performed it very well. So, what quality should have the highest weight in a selection process?

Cognitive ability (aka intelligence, problem-solving skills, etc.)

In studies that reviewed the performance of over 30,000 employees, cognitive ability was one of the best predicators of success and related very highly to candidates’ ability to effectively solve problems, learn and benefit from training, adapt to changing issues and circumstances, and even helps determine the employee’s level of job satisfaction. For those interested in the statistics, it had a validity coefficient of 0.53.

That said, technical knowledge (gained through education and experience) is going to play a role in helping a candidate “hit the ground running” and in some cases is necessary to even be able to practice in a certain role. Sometimes it's unrealistic to expect a company to engage in a comprehensive training program for those without the required background, even if they are deemed high potential.

What we would recommend is using a combination of cognitive ability and education/experience to find those candidates who have had opportunity to gain technical knowledge and the ability to learn and benefit from those opportunities. That’s what we do when screening candidates and we’ve had quite a bit of success with that approach.

Hope that helps!

All the best,

Chad Hayward

Assessment Director
Hire Insight Group
www.hireinsightgroup.com