No College Degree? Apple, Tesla And More Companies Say 'No Problem'

This article was originally published on April 18, 2022

As a general rule, going to college provides more opportunities than not. At the same time, the cost of higher education is increasing and some would-be university students are essentially priced out of attending.

Researchers at Georgetown University discovered that from 1980 to 2019, the cost of college increased by 169%, while the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland estimated median income in the U.S. had increased 30% from 1980 to 2018.

Aware of this, some major companies are bypassing the once-required bachelor’s degree in response to the inflated costs of higher education, opening the door to thousands of potential hires.

Individuals seeking to unlock the next level of opportunity can consult this list of companies who hire without a college degree.

See Also: What Are The 20 Top Paying Jobs In The US?

Netflix Inc NFLX 
The streaming giant currently has several senior-level employees who did not attend college and even published an article championing the individuals. Some of the no-degree roles Netflix is hiring for right now include:

Administrative Assistant, Corporate Real Estate Workplace Security

• Technical Solutions Manager
• Production Assistant

IBM IBM
The technology firm offers a 12-month program designed to onboard potential employees while giving them the skills they would need for the role in the company. Some of the apprentice roles IBM is hiring for right now include:

• Industrial Design Apprentice
• Hacker Apprentice
• Software Engineer Apprentice

Apple Inc AAPL 
CEO Tim Cook famously said in 2019, "For our company, as you know, was founded by [a] college dropout, so we never really thought that [a] college degree was the thing you had to have to do well, we always tried to expand our horizons, to that degree, about half of our U.S. employment last year were people that did not have a four-year degree. And we're very proud of that." Some of the roles Apple is hiring for right now include:

• Account Executive
• Apple Specialist
• Technical Support

Alphabet Inc GOOGL GOOG
Kent Walker, SVP of Global Affairs at Alphabet and Google wrote in a blog post that individuals shouldn’t need a college degree to have economic security. The tech giant offers equal opportunity for non-entry level positions without a college degree and some of the roles Alphabet is hiring for now include:

• Application Engineer
• Technical Program Manager
• Data and Analytics Analyst

Tesla Inc TSLA
CEO Elon Musk has said that he values people with ideas: "Generally, look for things that are evidence of exceptional ability. I don't even care if somebody graduated from college or high school or whatever.” Tesla’s website takes it a step further, saying “It doesn’t matter where you come from, where you went to school or what industry you’re in — if you’ve done exceptional work, join us to rethink the future of sustainable energy and manufacturing.” Some of the roles Tesla is hiring for right now include:

• Quality Engineer
• Production Associate
• Service Advisor

Meta Platforms Inc FB
As a college dropout himself, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is not against hiring those with no degree. As Meta, the home of Facebook, pays an average annual salary of $125,229 according to PayScale.com, here are some of the roles Facebook is hiring for right now:

• People Specialist, Onboarding
• Candidate Experience Lead
• Finance Associate

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash