The Glorious End of Higher Education’s Monopoly on Credibility

In the past, the only way to get professional credibility was with a college degree. Now young people are using many different tools to gain a foothold in the business world.

In the past, the only way to get professional credibility was with a college degree. Now young people are using many different tools to gain a foothold in the business world.

The times they are a changin’, and in this essay, I’d like to suggest they are changing in a way that has massive implications for education: sources of credibility—once the domain of expensive degrees–are becoming democratized, decentralized, and diversified.

In the past, there was pretty much one way to gain credibility: get some letters after your name, from as fancy an institution as possible.

Now, in 2012, I’ve seen dozens of young people who don’t even have college degrees use the following tools as sources of credibility in the business world:

• A track record of having started one or two successful businesses, even if they were small.
• Industry-related blogs with well-written, lively, detailed posts, which receive many comments and tweets/likes/shares per post.
• An impressive About page on a well-designed personal website
• Large, legitimate, real followings on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media networks. Read more.......