Hey friend,

If you've been scrolling job boards lately, you've probably noticed something: more and more postings say "degree preferred" instead of "degree required." Companies from IBM to Google to state governments are loudly proclaiming they care about what you can do, not where you went to school.

Sounds like great news for those of us rebuilding after a layoff, right?

Well, yes and no. The skills-based hiring revolution is real—but there's a massive gap between the headlines and what's actually happening in hiring managers' offices. Let me break down what this really means for your job search.

Cherri McKinney knows what it's like to have a résumé that doesn't follow a straight line. A licensed aesthetician who'd worked in bookkeeping, run a waxing salon, and handled HR at a homeless shelter, she wasn't exactly what most corporate recruiters picture.

"My background is kind of all over the place," McKinney told The Hechinger Report. "You might have looked at my résumé and thought, 'Wow, this girl doesn't have a college education.'"

But here's what changed: In 2022, Colorado's governor signed an executive order directing state agencies to hire based on skills, not degrees. When McKinney applied to the Colorado Department of Labor for a benefits and leave administrator position, interviewers asked her practical questions about FMLA and employee management—not where she went to school.

✔️ She emphasized her transferable skills from diverse work experiences

✔️ She prepared to answer practical, competency-based questions

✔️ She targeted an employer with a genuine commitment to skills-based hiring

Result? She got the job and now rides the bus to her Denver office with an employee transit pass.

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The numbers tell two stories at once—and you need to understand both.

The optimistic headline: 1 in 4 employers say they'll eliminate bachelor's degree requirements by year's end, according to a Resume Templates survey of 1,000 hiring managers (HR Dive, May 2025). Of companies that have already removed requirements, 84% report the change has been successful.

The reality check: Harvard Business School and Burning Glass Institute research found that fewer than 1 in 700 hires are actually affected by degree requirement removal. When 85% of companies claim skills-based hiring but the actual impact is this small, we're dealing with a massive gap between policy and practice.

Here's what's really happening:

But here's the brutal truth: Harvard professor Joseph Fuller found that only 37% of companies that announced skills-based hiring actually changed their hiring behavior. The rest? Same hiring managers, same biases, same informal preference for traditional credentials.

"If you are doing the hiring and you haven't been guided through a process of how to assess somebody based on their work experiences," Fuller explained, "that is going to be a real challenge."

Don't wait for companies to figure this out. Position yourself for the skills-based opportunities that actually exist.

1. Target proven employers, not just policy announcements

Look for companies with documented success: IBM, Google, Apple, Walmart, Target, and state governments in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Utah have real track records. Colorado tracks that 25% of state hires in reclassified positions are now people without degrees.

2. Lead with skills, not education

Restructure your résumé to front-load competencies. Instead of leading with your degree (or its absence), open with a skills summary. Use specific, measurable achievements: "Managed $2M budget" beats "financial management experience."

3. Build verifiable credentials

Industry-recognized certifications carry weight: Google Career Certificates, CompTIA certifications, AWS credentials. These signal verified skills that hiring managers can trust—unlike vague "certificate of completion" programs.

4. Prepare for competency-based interviews

The Cherri McKinney story shows what skills-based interviews look like: practical questions about how you'd handle real scenarios. Practice articulating your abilities with specific examples from any work context—including volunteer work, gig work, or personal projects.

5. Document everything

Create a skills portfolio: GitHub repos, project case studies, LinkedIn skill badges, work samples. When degrees don't speak for you, proof does.

30-Minute Skills Audit

This week, take 30 minutes to answer these questions:

Write down your answers. This becomes your roadmap.

The skills revolution isn't a lie—it's just incomplete. Some companies have genuinely changed how they hire. Others have changed their job postings without changing their mindset.

Your job isn't to wait for every employer to catch up. Your job is to find the ones who already have, and to make your skills impossible to ignore.

You've got capabilities that matter. Now let's make sure the right people see them.

Rooting for you,

Win

Fellow layoff survivor, creator of Let Go Weekly

If this helped you, forward it to someone else navigating a career transition. We grow stronger together.