Open LinkedIn right now. Search for developers, founders, and designers at top companies. You’ll notice something that would have been unthinkable a decade ago.
Under “Education,” more and more profiles proudly list: Self-Educated.
Not Harvard. Not Stanford. Not “Prefer not to say.” They’re actively choosing to display it. And they’re getting hired, promoted, and funded.
A Credential Shift Is Happening
For decades, your LinkedIn education section was a status signal. The name of your university mattered more than what you actually learned there. Recruiters filtered by school name. Hiring managers used degrees as a shortcut for competence.
That system is breaking.
Companies like Google, Apple, IBM, and Tesla have dropped degree requirements for many roles. Ernst & Young found no correlation between academic performance and job performance. Elon Musk has said publicly that he doesn’t care about degrees — he cares about “evidence of exceptional ability.”
The result? A new generation of professionals who skip the degree entirely and signal their competence through work, not credentials.
Why “Self-Educated” Works
When someone writes “Self-Educated” on their LinkedIn, they’re making a statement:
- “I learn on my own.” — Self-direction is one of the most valuable traits in the modern workforce. If you can teach yourself complex skills without someone holding your hand, you can adapt to anything.
- “I ship things.” — Self-educated professionals almost always have portfolios, open-source contributions, or products they’ve built. Their proof is in the work, not the transcript.
- “I don’t need permission.” — They didn’t wait for an admissions committee to validate them. They just started building.
Hiring managers are catching on. A candidate with a GitHub full of real projects and a track record of shipping is often more valuable than one with a 4.0 GPA and no portfolio.
The Portfolio Is the New Resume
The shift from degrees to portfolios is accelerating. Here’s what the best “Self-Educated” professionals on LinkedIn have in common:
- Public work — Blog posts, open-source contributions, shipped products, case studies
- Proof of revenue — Products with real users and real revenue, not just side projects
- Community presence — Active in developer communities, writing, speaking, teaching
- Continuous learning — Always picking up new skills, not resting on a degree from years ago
This is the new credential stack. And it’s accessible to anyone with an internet connection and the discipline to execute.
The Uncomfortable Truth for Universities
Universities are facing an existential question: if employers increasingly don’t care about degrees, what exactly are students paying $50,000–$80,000 a year for?
The honest answer for many students: the network, the signal, and the experience. Not the education itself. That’s a $200,000+ social club.
Meanwhile, self-educated professionals are building the same networks through open-source communities, Twitter, LinkedIn, and by shipping real products that attract like-minded people.
What This Means for You
If you’re considering whether to pursue a traditional degree or go the self-educated route, consider this:
The market is telling you what it values. Not where you studied — but what you’ve built.
At CSE, we’re building a bridge between these worlds. You get the structure and community of a school, but the outcome is a real product with real revenue — not a piece of paper.
Your graduation isn’t a ceremony. It’s $10,000 MRR.
That shows up better on LinkedIn than any degree.