‘Rethink your college degrees and if you should even attend college at all’ — Tech CEOs from Apple, Nvidia, and Palantir say amid AI boom!
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SINGAPORE: “What school, you go, ah?” — may no longer matter as much as you think, at least in the tech world.
That’s the message being broadcast loud and clear by some of the world’s most powerful tech CEOs, who are now telling young people to take a serious pause before blindly committing to a four-year college degree.
In a report by Investopedia, Palantir CEO Alex Karp declared that he “doesn’t particularly care” where—or even if—someone went to university. In his view, “working at Palantir is the best credential in tech”. Whether you went to Harvard, your local polytechnic, or skipped the whole shebang, he says, “once you come to Palantir, you’re a Palantirian. No one cares about the other stuff.”
Skills vs degrees
Over at Apple, CEO Tim Cook echoed similar sentiments. Back in 2019, he pointed out a “mismatch between the skills that are coming out of colleges and what the skills are that we believe we need in the future.” That same year, around 50% of Apple’s US hires didn’t have a four-year degree. Cook reiterated in a 2023 interview that coding skills and collaborative spirit matter more than academic parchment.
Translation for Singaporeans: Maybe it’s time we stop shaming ITE and poly grads and start asking if our traditional obsession with academic qualifications still holds water in a world where ChatGPT can write your essay and debug your code with a single click.
Even Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang would change his course degree
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang—whose chips power the current AI boom—said if he could do it all over again, he wouldn’t stick to electrical engineering. He’d probably go with “more of the physical sciences,” like chemistry or physics, instead. Which makes you wonder: If the CEO of Nvidia is rethinking his course, maybe we should too.
Dropouts who became billionaires!
Of course, no degree debate would be complete without tech’s favourite trio: Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates—all college dropouts who went on to build tech empires.
However, Gates, on the other hand, had second thoughts. He told CNBC he regretted leaving Harvard after just one year and actually tried to get someone else to run Microsoft so he could return to school. His advice now is “Drop out only in an exceptional case.”
So while Jobs thought college “kills creativity and turns people into bozos”, Gates still believes in having “a broad set of knowledge.” Two sides of the same billionaire coin.
Time for Singaporeans to also rethink their college degrees?
In Singapore, we still measure life success by whether you went through the JC–NUS–Government Job pipeline, yet, tech leaders are effectively saying: “Don’t waste four years on a degree you don’t need just because society tells you to.”
The implications are huge. For one, the local obsession with degree inflation might finally be due for a reality check.
In fact, some local firms—especially startups and fintech companies—have already started prioritising portfolios over paper, and if you want to work in software development, UX/UI design, or digital marketing, then showcase your GitHub repository, Figma projects, or viral TikTok campaign. Not your diploma.
AI shakes the job tree
The rise of AI is also a key reason behind this shift. According to Investopedia, the industry’s transformation is leaving fresh grads struggling to find the cushy tech roles that were once guaranteed. It’s not that tech is dying—it’s that the skill requirements are evolving faster than universities can catch up.
And that’s where the traditional degree model struggles: It teaches in slo-mo in a world that’s moving super fast!
So, what now?
Here’s what young Singaporeans—and their parents—should really be asking:
- What skills will actually get me hired in 2025?
- Do I need a degree to gain those skills, or can I get them via boot camps, apprenticeships, or self-learning?
- Can I build a portfolio that demonstrates my ability to do the job, not just pass exams?
Because if Apple, Palantir, and Nvidia aren’t asking about your GPA, maybe it’s time we stopped using degrees as a universal yardstick for talent.
After all, in the world of tech—and increasingly, beyond it—it’s no longer where you studied, but what you can do for it that counts more than anything else.