Monica A. ReyhaniJan 27 · 7 min read
We’ve all been there — scrolling through a job description on LinkedIn or other job board, mentally ticking off the requirements, feeling like we’re perfect for a role — already daydreaming about what we’ll do with the pay increase — and then get to the very specific education and years of experience. “Mmm I don’t have that degree… or any degree at all.” Or, “Mmm I haven’t been doing this that long.” Some of us might apply anyway, but the reality is, many of us won’t.
So, Fox Tech did something truly cutting edge and innovative, no code changes needed: they removed the requirements completely.
If you’re asking yourself, “Wait, what?” You read that right — Fox Tech no longer requires education and years of experience on job descriptions.
If I’m being honest, I couldn’t believe the update when it was shared in our Tech Team Slack channel — and neither could my fellow colleagues. I had to know more.
So I reached out to HR professional Sally Campbell: “One thing in technology I think we are tending to understand is years of experience don’t always equate in talent,” she said.
In fact, Florida State University reviewed 81 studies to investigate the link between an employee’s prior work experience and his or her performance in a new organization. They found no significant correlation between the two.
“You can have one person that has 10 years of experience, but just hasn’t accomplished as much or dove as deeply in the technology as they could. And then you have some people that are just graduating college that know more. It’s in their DNA, and they can just excel in, say, coding. …we don’t want to limit people to something like a number of years of experience where we feel it’s more important to hire the people that we want and need and that are talented based on skill.” And, yes, that includes soft skills.
