In a bold move against traditional hiring practices, Vishnu Vardhan, CEO & founder of Vizzhy Inc., championed the hiring of talent regardless of their educational background. His recent decision to recruit a Grade 9 student from Belgaum challenges the long-held belief that a degree is a prerequisite for employment in the tech industry.

In a recent interview with AIM, the CEO said, “School kids these days are amazing because they have the opportunity to learn things that we would not get even in colleges.” The hired Belgaum student has independently developed a Rabbit L model using Raspberry Pi and ChatGPT APIs, relying solely on online tutorials.

Following a similar path, Izam Mohammed‘s journey to becoming an AI/ML engineer is another example of how non-traditional routes can lead to success in the tech world. 

Mohammed, who never set foot in a college classroom, leveraged online resources to acquire the skills needed to develop the Python library for evaluating RAG models. His initiative and determination earned him a position in the industry at 18, showcasing the power of self-learning.

The shift away from requiring a computer science degree for tech-related careers is gaining traction, with industry leaders like Matthew Candy, IBM‘s global managing partner for generative AI, lending their support. 

“The speed at which people will be able to come up with an idea, to test the idea, to make something, it’s going to be so accelerated. You don’t need to have a degree in computer science to do that,” Candy said. 

Candy predicts that advancements in AI will democratise product creation, allowing individuals with innovative ideas to bring them to fruition without extensive coding knowledge.

Decline of Computer Science Degree 

In an interview with Recode editor Kara Swisher on the Recode Decode podcast, billionaire investor Mark Cuban said that computer science degrees will lose some of their value as artificial intelligence becomes more advanced. 

“Twenty years from now, if you are a coder, you might be out of a job because it’s just math and so, whatever we’re defining the AI to do, someone’s got to know the topic. If you’re using AI to emulate Shakespeare, somebody better know Shakespeare. 

“The coding major who graduates this year probably has better short-term opportunities than the liberal arts major that’s a Shakespeare expert. But long term, it’s like people who learned COBOL or Fortran and thought that was the future and they were going to be covered forever,” Cuban said.  

During the Microsoft Build 2023 Conference, it was repeatedly mentioned that “everyone is a developer now”. This suggests that even without prior coding experience, one can learn to code and secure jobs in AI. And Microsoft aims to broaden opportunities for them by introducing new initiatives to facilitate this transition. 

Some Quora and Reddit users believe the internet provides a lot of learning material to enhance AI skills. They argue that individuals can acquire knowledge virtually on any topic from the comfort of their homes. 

Time to Rewrite Your Resume

Given the evolving landscape of the tech industry and the shifting attitudes toward formal educational requirements, it’s evident that your resume needs an overhaul. 

The stories of Vizzhy CEO’s unconventional hiring practices, the self-taught journeys of individuals like Izam Mohammed, and the insights shared by industry leaders all reflect a fundamental truth that expertise and skill in technology are no longer solely defined by a degree.

Well, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, thinks, “University degrees are IMO status and not substance at this point.”