After being expelled from school when I was 17, I knew that the traditional education route was never going to be for me. I wasn’t thick: in fact, I scored in the top 10% of pupils in my year for science. I just didn’t want to learn anything that didn’t immediately make me money.
Why am I telling you this? As the industry continues to evolve and develop in the wake of the recession and the pandemic, I have become incredibly passionate about pushing recruitment at Art of Cloud towards prioritising candidates’ non-traditional education routes – and why I think you should too.
Here is why you should start investing in non-traditional education roles.
Humans buy from humans
What do an internationally award-winning show jumper, a Latino dancer, and a mum-of-two returning to work have in common? They are all among our top-performing Salesforce consultants and senior leadership team.
Trust in our team comes from making personal connections through shared experiences and interests, not by flashing a fancy degree in someone’s face.
I’m not saying that degrees are useless – nor that the people that get them wouldn’t be qualified for the same job. Some of our best consultants and developers hold computer science degrees or other complimentary certificates. I just feel that the industry has put too much emphasis on candidates needing a degree for them to be seen as qualified, regardless of their other experience.
Salespeople are a different breed of employee, and you categorically cannot learn the skills you need to be successful in that field from any degree, but instead you learn them from experience.
As an industry, we need to start looking at a candidate’s whole life portfolio rather than whether they carry a specific piece of paper in order to determine their qualifications.
5 steps for improving developer productivity without the price tag
Choose attitude over academia
Has your candidate worked pulling pints in a busy city centre bar? They’ve probably got ample customer service experience as well as the knowledge of how to efficiently run their workspace.
Did one of your candidates not go to university but have an apprenticeship qualification in an applicable area? Then they achieved national accreditation for their skills within a workplace as well as showing enough tenacity to study while holding down a full-time job.
When I launched Art of Cloud back in 2016, I started it with the goal of helping other people become successful, but when you’re working from the ground up you also have to be realistic and that means hiring people who are good at what they do.
That’s why we set out to recruit based on attitude rather than academic awards.
In my eyes, anyone can learn the information needed to be a good consultant, no matter what industry you’re in. A couple of weeks with a good information pack and some vocational training is all any capable candidate should need to get to grips with your brand. None of this requires a degree, just a go-getting attitude.
Candidates from non-traditional educational backgrounds have often had to think outside the box when it comes to progressing their careers and are more likely to have already achieved applicable skill sets/ experience. This gives your company a better diversity of knowledge within individual teams as well as an onslaught of fresh ideas from people from different backgrounds.
Basically, a win-win.
Making a difference
Lastly, but arguably most importantly, industry leaders should aim to recruit candidates from non-traditional educational backgrounds as it can give someone the chance they need to start their dream job and use their talents where they would otherwise be wasted.
I know this from experience. Over the course of my career, I always found my age to be a hurdle for employers as many equate a younger candidate with a lack of ability. In tech, there should be no age barriers, if anything it should be reversed as younger candidates have grown up in this world and use it more frequently than any other generation.
The bosses I admired and have maintained a long-term relationship with throughout my success, are the ones that took a chance on me.
Seeing someone start their career and grow into a successful consultant is an amazing experience as an employer. That’s why I think employers should take more risks on candidates from non-traditional educational backgrounds.