Education Hacking to Achieve an HR Filter Bypass

Nothing seems to be more deflating to many IT professionals than dropping resumes and hearing nothing but silence. To be shot down even before an initial conversation with an employer stings, especially if due to their HR filters weeding out ‘unqualified’ individuals before they’ve even garnered a look. There are numerous red flags that corporate recruiters quickly home in on when paring down a stack of resumes such as a lack of time in the industry, little if any directly relevant experience for a position, or that a person seems to frequently jump from job to job. All of those are valid. However, one glaring item usually stands out as a disqualifying issue faster than the rest, and it’s one that seems to affect a large number of senior people in technology – the lack of a college degree. In this article, I’ll highlight a little of my past and present to show where I’ve come from and where I’m going. I’ll look at how I just accomplished what I like to call ‘Education Hacking’.

My History

Until recently, I was one of those senior technology professionals who had successfully navigated a career path without a degree. Coming out of high school, I had narrowly missed an appointment to the United States Naval Academy. I had been so focused on the process of applying there, that I completely neglected applying for scholarships and looking into other schools. Then I met my wife, and things moved quickly from there. So my desire for a formal education took a back seat to providing for a new family. I jumped into both retail and factory work but soon realized that, while I liked the personal interactions, retail employment wouldn’t pay my bills and factory work was too repetitive for my liking.

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