Get Instant Loan up to ₹10 Lakh!
No Degree? No problem. How young geniuses are disrupting Silicon Valley
Tech companies are increasingly hiring talent without college degrees. Elon Musk’s DOGE employs young dropouts, and firms like IBM, Google, and Accenture prioritise skills over formal education. Bootcamps, apprenticeships, and AI-driven hiring are enabling non-grads to secure high-paying tech roles.
The tech world is increasingly welcoming young, self-taught talents without college degrees. Major firms like IBM, Google, GM, and Apple are dropping degree requirements for tech roles. According to a report in The New York Post, this trend is gaining momentum, with companies prioritising skills over formal education.
Musk’s team led by young talent
Elon Musk’s hand-picked staff at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) consists of employees aged 19 to 24, including a high school graduate and a former SpaceX intern who received a $100,000 grant from billionaire investor Peter Thiel to drop out of college, The New York Post reported.
Thiel, who has long advocated for skipping college, has been funding young entrepreneurs since 2010. Among the recipients this year are DOGE employee Luke Farritor and 24-year-old Augustus Doricko, who left UC Berkeley to launch Rainmaker, a startup developing technology to modify weather patterns.
“There’s definitely respect in Silicon Valley for those that drop out,” Doricko told the Post.
More companies relax degree rules
IBM, Accenture, and Amazon Web Services are among firms loosening degree requirements, said The New York Post. In February 2023, IT firm Accenture hired 21-year-old Seth Gallegos as a network engineer despite his lack of a degree, the news report stated.
“I think 95% of any tech job can be done without a degree,” Gallegos told the Post, adding that he took a 15-week cybersecurity boot camp instead of pursuing a costly four-year degree.
Similarly, 20-year-old Alejandro Ceniceros secured a job as a cloud technician at a hospital chain after a boot camp programme, skipping the traditional degree route.
“I didn’t want to get into a huge amount of debt over schooling, because you’re not even guaranteed a job with a degree anymore in this market,” he was quoted as saying.
AI changing the hiring landscape
With artificial intelligence (AI) playing a greater role in hiring, companies are focusing more on practical skills than formal education, the report said. According to former Issuu CEO Joe Hyrkin, AI tools are making it easier for companies to evaluate candidates based on skills rather than credentials.
“In the past, you would use a university degree or company pedigree as the bar, but now you can use AI tools to weed through everybody’s application,” Hyrkin told the Post.
Apprenticeships open doors for non-grads
Several companies are proactively recruiting non-degree holders through apprenticeships. The report highlighted Amazon Web Services’ programme, which pays students for four weeks of training and often hires them afterwards.
One participant, 25-year-old Kavary Hill, transitioned from working in HVAC to becoming a data centre operations technician at Amazon Web Services after completing the programme. “I was always interested in IT… but this was the first opportunity to actually get my foot in the door,” he told the news outlet.
IBM has also partnered with Brooklyn’s P-Tech high school to recruit young tech talent, as per the report. It has stated that one graduate, Shekinah Griffith, landed a six-figure job at IBM straight out of high school.
Catch all the Business News , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
MoreLess
First Published:8 Feb 2025, 06:46 PM IST
- Top Gainers
- Top Losers
- 52 Week High