In the 80s college degrees meant a lot. Now everyone wants to dismiss your degree and they attempt to tell you how it doesn't mean much. Everyone has a story about some dumbass at their company who has a Masters degree who can't do the job they can while they only have a high school diploma or GED.
Frequently, you can't get through the job hiring process without doing some assessment test.
For example:
Your co-worker Martin notices his paycheck is short so he steals some product to compensate for the shortage. He thinks his actions are justified.
Do you:
- Strongly Disagree
- Disagree
- Have no opinion
- Agree
- Strongly Agree
Those tests are worth more than four years of college? Try to refuse to do one and see if you can get the job. Write an email to HR and point out the degree on your resume and see how far you get. Employers are assigning more value to assessment tests than college degrees.
I believe the degradation of the college degree is a conspiracy that corporations have used to pay lower wages. And just like with taxes and politics they get the average worker to repeat their talking points so that now if you try to tell someone you have a degree you are immediately hit with all those "I know a guy with a Masters who is a dumbass..." anecdotes.
EDIT: Here's another example:
Go get a bunch of I.T. certifications. Get your CompTIA A+, Network+, Security+ Get a Microsoft MCP or MCSA
And employers will still ask you to do an assessment test. Why?
Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA, Apple etc. spend millions for dollars to build a curriculum for exams. How exactly is some BS online assessment test that HR bought from some vendor better?
And someone will say, "yeah, but some people are really good at memorization and taking tests so your certs don't really prove...blah blah blah"
My response to that is well at least those are proctored. You have to show your ID as well. With HR's nonsensical assessment tests you can have any of your friends complete them for you while sitting in your living room.
This is all by design. If you can invalidate the college degree and the I.T. certifications (or other industry certs) you can level the playing field and pay those with degrees/certs the same entry level wage as those without.
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It's not a "conspiracy" but rather it's capitalism. Yes the employers have almost all the power. Without unions or laws to try to level out the power imbalance, the only solution is to keep getting new skills that will eventually make you valuable (as simply a college degree doesn't cut it anymore). And yes it's a race to the bottom.