I’m an online learning evangelist. As a college student, I used iTunes U to supplement what I learned in my in-person lectures. I taught myself to code online, and I’ve reached more than 1 million people through content I’ve posted on YouTube and SlideShare. For the past four years, I’ve developed my company around online learning. And I’ve seen firsthand how hiring practices have had to change due to the emergence of online education.
Tech is creating new employment needs — whether it’s new skills or entirely new positions — at an unprecedented rate, and it’s not possible for traditional degree programs to prepare the workforce for these jobs fast enough. Roles like product managers, UI/UX designers, data scientists, and full-stack developers were once strictly startup concerns, but conventional businesses have an increasing need for them as well. The rapid growth and evolution of such positions means that a university degree no longer guarantees a candidate’s job-worthiness, which is why we’re seeing debates about whether certain degree programs are still relevant at all.
Even the most technologically advanced schools can’t keep up the pace. There’s always a lag between when new demands emerge in the job market and how quickly universities can accommodate those needs. Considering that schools can take up to two years to establish new courses, the skills companies desire now may have changed significantly (or be entirely irrelevant) by the time the university is ready to teach them.
That’s not to say a university degree isn’t valuable. But it should no longer be the dominant qualification marker. As a hiring manager, you have to determine how long it will take to teach a candidate the necessary skills for her job. If she’s already learned a programming language or SEO techniques through an online course, your onboarding time drops significantly. Degree programs hone students’ critical thinking abilities, but online training and boot camps really enhance their employee value. Consider incorporating the following steps for a more contemporary, efficient hiring process:
Determine the software expertise needed for each position, and build job criteria around that. You can then match a candidate’s certifications against those must-haves. A portfolio or student website doesn’t always accurately depict a prospective hire’s abilities because you can’t know how much teacher input went into the functionality and design. But if someone’s taken and completed additional online courses, you can safely assume she’s actually developed those skills by looking for certifications from programs like Accredible or Degreed.
Figure out what role the candidate played. Many people enroll in coding boot camps, hoping to land well-paying programming gigs immediately after. While these candidates are often highly motivated, you can’t tell how much of a role they played in building something just by looking at a completed project. Maybe a candidate was just following a recipe book, which doesn’t mean she was able to come up with the final product on her own — or that she’ll be able to do that going forward.
The same is true of previous work. Perhaps the person was junior to a really fantastic lead developer, or the designer did an excellent job of disguising back-end flaws. I like to ask candidates about a time when they needed to learn a new skill quickly, how long it took, and what the outcome was. This gives some insight into a candidate’s work ethic and adaptability. You’ll also want to get a sense of the size of the team that worked on a particular project. Who did what?
Be wary of a reluctance to adapt to new technology. I’ll pass on an applicant if I see from her LinkedIn profile that she’s an expert in Java or C++ but hasn’t explored Ruby on Rails or another newer language. However bright the person is, a programmer — or anyone, for that matter — can become stuck in her ways and may be reluctant to adapt as the company grows. The fact that someone hasn’t actively pursued a newer language or skill set is a red flag.
Be mindful of ancillary skills. You want someone who can hit the ground running, so find out a candidate’s familiarity with different project management systems. Someone who works in C++ may never have used GitHub to collaborate with team members and may even be overly fixated on optimization. Newer tools allow for much greater efficiency, and you want to hire people who are already in that mindset.
The ideal hire isn’t either a college graduate or a self-taught expert. The most attractive candidates combine the critical and theoretical thinking gained in a university environment with the initiative and hands-on experience associated with online learning. They can dive deep to solve specific problems and also view challenges within the broader context. Determination, academics, and serious hustle are the key indicators of today’s great hires.
Mattan Griffel is the co-founder and CEO of Y Combinator-backed One Month, the first online school for accelerated learning. Mattan created One Month Rails, the bestselling online Ruby on Rails course for beginners to learn how to build web applications. He’s also the New York City ambassador to the Thousand Network, a collection of young leaders around the world, and was selected as one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30” in Education this year.
