[craig1f]

This tends to work better with smaller companies.

In my experience, in a small company, the CEO is still involved in the hiring process. If he's highly technical, he can conduct an interview, identify talent, and if it doesn't work out, it's his problem.

As a company grows, the CEO has delegate to people below him. Whether he's technical or not, hiring managers get involved. If a hiring manager hires someone good, degree or not, everything is fine. They don't get bonuses for hiring people without degrees who work out.

However, if an employee has to be fired, there will be a meeting to discuss what red flags there might have been that could have signaled that this person was a mistake to hire. If the hiring manager believes that they'll get in trouble for ignoring the lack of a degree, they're not going hire people without a degree. They might overlook talent, but at least they won't get blamed for messing up and hiring someone unqualified.

[fjsolwmv]

That's a lot of FUD I've never seen actually happen.