If someone lies about a degree, gets a job, and is a top performer for years, the problem isn’t the employee. It’s the company’s hiring process.

Look, I’m not talking about people faking their credentials for jobs like surgery or structural engineering, where lives are on the line. That’s a different universe.

But I keep thinking about this story I read about a guy who worked at a tech company for over a decade. He was a stellar employee, consistently got great reviews, and was well-respected. Then, during some kind of company audit, they discovered he never actually finished the college degree he listed on his resume from 15 years prior.

He was fired almost immediately for a breach of integrity. And while I get the company’s perspective on dishonesty, the whole situation is just wild to me. This guy proved, over ten years of solid work, that the degree was completely irrelevant to his ability to excel. His actual performance was the only resume that should have mattered.

To me, cases like this are the ultimate proof that we put way too much stock in formal qualifications. It shows that the gatekeeping is arbitrary. Honestly, for a huge number of corporate jobs, the most critical skills are taught during the first 6 months of on-the-job training anyway, not in a lecture hall.