Do you really need a Degree to work in Recruitment?

I pondered this all night while watching reruns of The Inbetweeners on the sofa.

Is it just me, or does anybody else agree that there is zero correlation between locking down a Degree (that will most likely have nothing to do with Recruitment), and a successful long-term career in Recruitment?

Yes, I totally get that it demonstrates that the Candidate (as a young person) has applied themselves, and persevered with something, to achieve “a thing”… I get that! I do!

But how does it determine whether they will (or not) be successful in Recruitment?

Could it be argued that a couple of years life experience (be it work or travel) are more valuable to a head start in Recruitment?

Don’t get me wrong… I totally understand the power of education, and if either of my kids tell me that they don’t plan on going to university, there’ll be some pretty tough conversations taking place at our house.

(That said, my kids are more like the kids from the aforementioned TV show, so I’m already bracing myself!)

But we’re talking about Recruitment here!

We all know it’s a career you can’t exactly study for, and that there isn’t really a Recruitment-bespoke Degree out there that even fits our industry!

So why, in 2022, do we still get hung up on degrees? Or lack thereof?