Has America Been Overtaken by Creeping Credentialism?

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From Blue Collar to White Collar

I went directly from high school to the workforce after graduating in 1985, holding a series of blue-collar jobs of increasing complexity. In the late 1990s I took my first administrative job, where I applied the interpersonal skills learned in blue-collar roles to white-collar tasks.

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My 20-year administrative career culminated in a decade at the executive level, earning more than many colleagues with master’s degrees—without onerous college debt. My current pursuit of a bachelor’s degree is a bucket-list item funded by company tuition reimbursement.

Such a career trajectory seems unlikely today. Even entry-level jobs require a degree, although I see little evidence that those degrees improve day-to-day skills. Company communications are frequently riddled with cringe-worthy errors. Nor do the college graduates seem to have learned reliability in the university lecture halls, where attendance is optional.