Let me commence by checking some privilege. I went to a four-year university, and a “good one” at that — Georgetown. I actually graduated 18 years ago this past Monday, which essentially means I am old and haven’t achieved very much in life to date, but eh, I mean, that’s why God and the Mormons invented IPAs, am I right? I’m right, but I’m also kidding, since if I have achieved anything aside from being able to write half-decent, it’s probably some form of functional alcoholism that I need to eventually recoil from. Wow, that got deeper than expected.
Anyway, long story short, I have a four-year degree and a fucking Masters, but I wouldn’t say I’ve done much with them, all-in. That’s to say I’m privileged, though. I’ve been rejected from hundreds — nay, thousands — of jobs in my life, but I don’t get rejected on the “Well, he’s not a four-year guy” trope.
The pandemic laid bare a lot of stuff about higher education and about how we write job descriptions and screen for roles and long-held biases and who we’re leaving out (or under-employing) in the workforce. A lot of stuff came to the top that creates uncomfortable discussions for people, and I want to think it will result in change, but probably by fall 2022 we’ll just be doing the exact same shit we were before, except now maybe Google and IBM will be paying for certificates that people can get…
