#382 Josh Drean: Employment Is Dead—Now Let’s Rebuild It — Part Three
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What is the future of work according to Josh Drean?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist humility for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today, we are diving into the future of work with George Dream. George is a Harvard MBA, a startup founder, and the co-author of the book called Employment is Dead. Yes, you hear it right. That is a very bold statement. But he's got a story to back it up. Across this three-part series, We'll explore why traditional employment models are failing, how emerging technologies like Web3 and AI are reshaping work, and what companies must do to survive. We'll also go behind the scenes of George's book, how a cold call turned into a major publishing deal, and why the old ways of managing people just don't cut it anymore. Whether you are an employee, an employer, or just curious about where work is headed, this series will challenge the way you think. I've spent over an hour diving into your book.
and certain chapters really caught my attention, especially the ones on talent, skills, credentials, and degrees. You and I, you are from Harvard, I'm from Yale, are both beneficiaries of brand name degrees. In the traditional playbook, that gave us a clear advantage in securing opportunities but with emerging technologies, are degrees becoming less and less relevant and useful?
Are degrees still relevant in today's job market?
In your book, you talk about how employers still claim to degree requirements. It's a tough mindset to break. As someone who has benefited from a prestigious degree, just like I have, what's your take? Do degrees still matter? Or is it time for a new way of thinking, working, and doing?
Yeah, that is a really great question. And you need to, I think we need to just hone in on what is the purpose of a degree? What's the objective of getting a degree? And as I understand it, the idea was to one, obviously gain the skills that you would need to be valuable in the workplace to be productive. And two, I guess that's really it, right?
What is the purpose of a degree in the modern workforce?
And the reason why a company would ask for degree requirements in order for you to get hired was simply because they can trust that they That you learned lessons, that you learned how to work, that you pushed hard, that your GPA is somehow representative of your work ethic and your knowledge. And then entering the workforce, hitting the ground running, right? That was the idea of getting a degree for the younger generation. The attractiveness of it was... that if you go to school, you will get the skills you need to land a high paying job and be fine. You'll be just fine in life. And what we're learning is that's no longer the case. Degrees are no longer guaranteeing employment, no longer guaranteeing a job.
And we're seeing a lot of organizations start to drop degree requirements. We'll take you if you have a degree or not. And how does that feel to someone who just spent tens of thousands of dollars going to school to earn a certain skill or earn a degree and then to hit the workforce. And they're like, sorry, we're not going to hire you. The reason is because we are moving to a skills based hiring process rather than an experience based process. Yes, you have a degree, but I've learned as an employer that, you know, Even though you have a degree doesn't mean you have the skills, soft and hard, to do the job or that you're not ready to be able to undertake. And a lot of companies famously will push against hiring someone from Harvard or Yale because they're divas, because they feel like the world owes them something and they're just not into that as much anymore. So I will answer very directly. I don't think that getting a college degree is the right model for
making sure that we are being valuable to companies, especially when we are upskilling in AI, right? Is there a degree out there around AI? Yeah, there's very technical degrees that you can get. And yeah, we're starting to add some of that into the curriculum. But in my mind, there's no Gen AI experts unless they've already been in the field building it directly.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the future of work according to Josh Drean?
0:13–2:43
2
Are degrees still relevant in today's job market?
2:43–3:32
3
What is the purpose of a degree in the modern workforce?
3:32–7:20
4
How has AI disrupted the hiring process?
7:20–10:22
5
What role does blockchain play in verifying skills?
10:22–12:37
6
How can companies adapt to the skills-based hiring process?
12:37–15:47
7
What does the future of work look like with verified skills?
15:47–26:21
Speakers
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