Today I listened to two separate founders share their views on technical talent. They have different approaches to empowering tech candidates and helping them find employment, but they made the same point: Smart technical talent is no longer coming exclusively from four-year universities with degrees in computer science. Many of these folks are self-taught and coming from bootcamps, community colleges, etc.

This observation didn’t surprise me, but I was surprised to hear that large employers aren’t adapting to this change quickly enough. They’re having a harder time assessing the quality of candidates absent the degree. I suspect smaller companies are having the same problem.

How we learn is changing. I’ve shared my views on how future generations will learn and on bespoke education. Today I realized that big opportunities exist to help employers evaluate candidates who have pursued nontraditional learning paths. Determining whether someone is the right person for a role was already difficult, and the evolution of education is intensifying the difficulty. It’s a challenge in hiring tech people now, and I foresee it spreading to every type of opening a company wants to fill in the not-so-distant future.