If a hiring manager could filter on "really can do what the CV/resume says", that would be great. Unfortunately, they can't.
I understand this, you understand this, it is orthogonal to what I am saying however. I was illustrating how "increasing requirements" merely result in increasing lies. Ask for what the job entails and filter on that. It will not help with the liars but it gets rid of the absurd, such as 10 years of experience with server 2012 when it is only the year 2015.
I'm going to suggest that, all other things being equal, a person with a college degree is a better bet than a person with a high school diploma, who in turn is a better bet than a high school dropout.
For apprentice level jobs, I wholeheartedly agree. If you want to play the odds then that is the way to go; however, for non-entry level jobs, I would say it is counter-productive, if not outright incorrect. A person who has 5 years experience actually doing something, and doing it well, is a FAR greater bet than someone who has 20 some certifications and a masters degree, but who never stays in any one one job for more than two years. I say this from experience.
I would go even farther (further? I need education) than that and say that the high school dropout who has 10+ years experience and great references is more valuable than a PhD in respect to getting the job done. Clearly there are things the PhD person can do that the high school dropout can not, but are those things relevant to the business? I would argue that those things will drive up the price of PhD in relation to the high school dropout.
The hiring manager is not looking for the best possible candidate, regardless of cost.
Change your filters and you have a better chance of finding the right candidate.
So, if you and I apply for a job, and we're both good candidates, I'm likely to get the interview before somebody who doesn't have the degree, and you may never get a chance.
I have been responsible for the hiring decision for numerous people. I have been burned many times by using degrees and certs as filtering tools. If there is nothing else there then yes, but otherwise, it is all about the experience and the employment history. Your experiences and employment history is what will get you the interview when I am reviewing CVs and resumes.
I don't know if this bothers you (you may run your own business or have enough people who know you're good), but it isn't going to bother the hiring manager.
I am not currently running my own business and I have suffered greatly at the hands of ignorant hiring managers, but then, I would argue that we were both better off never meeting. Willfully ignorant people piss me off. I have been making a six figure salary for over a decade. I have made enough money for them to stop taking social security taxes out after only 6 months because the maximum for the year had already been paid. Most people are not even aware there was a maximum that could be paid in a year.
My thesis is that filtering by education is counter-productive unless there are no other discriminators to use. Even then, we are talking about making it to the interview stage only, not as a hiring decision. If you can not find interesting people to interview, I would say your hiring practices need to be re-examined.
