Exploring the necessity of college degrees for cybersecurity talent

Data & research · 3 MIN READ · SCOUT SCHOLES · JUN 3, 2025 · TAGS: Expletives / leadership & management

TL;DR

• We recently pooled some of our team on their college (or any) education experiences they have that don’t relate to their current role
• You might be surprised to know that unrelated degrees are common, but so is no degree or even entirely unrelated professional experience
• Many Expletives themselves have degrees that don’t align with their careers at Expel (or a higher education degree at all) and we don’t let that stop any of us

While the advice you received as a kid may vary based on your personal experience, it’s usually a safe bet that someone in your life encouraged you to get a college degree to kickstart your career. Even as college acceptance becomes more competitive and tuition costs rise, it’s still a common anecdote. But is it really that critical to success? 

No one can answer that definitively. However, for now, we can share our own experiences with you. We’ve gathered some data on the education backgrounds of our own Expletives, and how (and if) that’s impacted their own careers. 

Initial research 

Here’s some industry-agnostic information you can find on a quick Google search:

• Most of Expel’s job listings require “a related college degree or an interesting story,” or “relevant experience,” and we save degree requirements for technical roles—and only when necessary.
• According to Hiring Lab, 52% of job postings on Indeed did not mention formal education requirements as of January 2024, which is up 48% from 2019.
• That same research from Hiring Lab said jobs requiring a college degree fell from 20.4% to 17.8% in the past five years—meaning the 48% that did require formal education still saw a decrease in necessity at well, which is helpful when 64% of US adults don’t have a bachelor’s degree.
• Research from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) predicts that 85% of “good” jobs will require a postsecondary education by 2031 (which isn’t always a degree). (via Forbes)
  • CEW defines a “good” job as one that pays, nationally, at least $43,000 and a median of $74,000 for workers between the ages of 25 and 44 in 2022 dollars. For workers ages 45 to 64, a good job is defined as paying at least $55,000 and a median of $91,000.

So what does all this mean for the cybersecurity industry, specifically? We polled our own Expletives on their own education experiences. 

Asking Expletives 

We informally (via Slack) polled Expletives and asked, “If you have a degree that doesn’t relate to your current job, can you share what it is? Or if you don’t have one at all, can you share that as well?” 

And the answers were eye-opening. Sure, most of the respondents did have postsecondary education, but it seems once that box is checked, the market isn’t specific. If you were to ask the same question at your company, would you be surprised by the results? 

The most interesting responses included an executive with no college degree (co-founder Justin Bajko—we hear this has been a trend for a time now), an electrician and musician becoming engineers, and essentially the degree focus for anyone in our customer success org (we love transferable skills!).

As you’d expect, our recruiting team had thoughts around our company’s educational job requirements and hiring philosophy.

“We say ‘a college degree or an interesting story’ because a college degree isn’t required to work at Expel,”says Katie Mackay, Director of Recruiting at Expel. “We recognize that a candidate’s value often comes from their experiences, and if those experiences are relevant to the role, we strongly encourage them to apply.” Neiko Lampkin, Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity (EID) Program Manager, added, “We strive to hire people from varying educational backgrounds because we understand that diversity in education enables us to more effectively solve problems and protect our customers!”