[ghaff]

What's probably true is that between the current market (at least in tech), automated application systems (and, yes, LLMs) of various kinds, etc. companies are just being flooded by applications. They can (and do) various things--lean very hard into referrals, randomly throw half the applications into the trash, etc. But at least one not totally irrational filter is a 10 second credentials check--which is at least objective assuming the person isn't lying. Why not take advantage of a lot of admissions office effort?

At the same time, I can remember the day when certain credentials were non-negotiable and this is probably still true to a certain degree in fields like Big Law and management consulting.