For two years, the loudest message in career advice has been: your degree doesn't matter anymore, skills matter. Companies dropped degree requirements. LinkedIn influencers celebrated it. The whole narrative shifted.

Harvard Business School and the Burning Glass Institute decided to check. They tracked what actually happened after companies made the change. The short version: at some of the biggest firms, fewer than 1 in 700 new hires were non-degree holders. The policy changed. The hiring didn't.

I'll break down who's real about it and who isn't, what it means for your job search, and why your credentials are probably worth more than you've been told. Plus: EA just started another round of layoffs ahead of a warned "July 1 purge" across the gaming industry, Autodesk is putting $350M into AI-related jobs, and temp staffing just hit four straight months of growth.

Let's get into it.

EA starts new layoffs. The gaming industry is bracing for a "July 1 purge."

Electronic Arts began informing employees of cuts across multiple divisions, just months after slashing 300 Battlefield developers. Industry insiders are warning that July 1 will bring closures and layoffs at Sony, BioWare, and Bungie. BioWare is reportedly down to fewer than 100 employees. One in three U.S. game developers has been laid off in the past two years.

Autodesk pledges $350M to create AI-related jobs.

Autodesk announced a $350 million commitment to AI workforce development, including new roles in AI product development, training programs for existing employees, and partnerships with universities. The company is framing AI as a growth driver for headcount, not a replacement strategy. It's a notable contrast to companies citing AI as the reason for cuts.

Temp staffing is up four straight months. That's a leading indicator.

Temporary help employment has increased for four consecutive months through May 2026. Historically, this is one of the most reliable signals that permanent hiring picks up next. Combined with SHRM's finding that 565,000+ jobs were added across March through May (the highest three-month average since early 2024), the structural picture beneath the layoff headlines looks different.

Tech job postings up 23% year over year. AI skills now appear in 73% of listings.

Dice's latest tech job report shows postings increased 2% month over month in May and 23% year over year, the strongest YoY gain of 2026. AI skill requirements hit 73% of all U.S. tech postings, up from 71% in April and a 192% increase from May 2025. Staffing firms posted the largest month-over-month industry gain.

BBC cutting 550 jobs as new Google-exec boss pushes "radical reform."

The BBC will cut 550 positions including news and content roles as part of a plan to save 500 million pounds over three years. New director-general Matt Brittin, formerly a senior Google executive, is driving the restructuring. The cuts include closing The World Tonight, a Radio 4 program that has aired for 56 years. Total losses could reach 2,000 positions ahead of the BBC's Royal Charter expiration in late 2027.

What started as ownership turned into obligation.

Now you’re in every meeting, decision, and channel… not because you want to be, but because things stall without you.

It’s not a capacity issue. It’s a structure issue.

The Freedom Framework shows you how to rebuild work flows, so you can step back without things breaking down.

BELAY U.S.-based Assistants help make that real by bringing ownership to execution, so your business doesn’t rely on you to function.

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For two years, the career advice world has been saying the same thing: credentials don't matter anymore, skills do. Companies publicly dropped degree requirements. LinkedIn celebrated it. Job seekers started wondering whether their MBA was worth mentioning.

Harvard Business School and the Burning Glass Institute studied the actual hiring data at companies that made these announcements, and found a massive gap between the policy and the practice. While 85% of employers claim to use skills-based hiring and 53% have removed degree requirements from at least some postings, the real numbers tell a different story. At certain large firms, fewer than 1 in 700 new hires were actually non-degree holders. The job posting changed. The filter behind it didn't.

The study breaks companies into three groups. 45% made the change "in name only," updating the posting language but leaving their screening and evaluation process completely intact. 18% made partial adjustments but saw minimal movement in actual hiring outcomes. And 37%, including Koch, Walmart, Apple, GM, and Target, achieved a real, roughly 20% increase in non-bachelor's hires.

There's one area where the shift is genuinely happening. GPA as a screening factor dropped from 73% in 2019 to 42% in 2026. That's a meaningful change. Companies still care about where you went to school and what degree you have, but they're caring less about how you performed within that system. Experience and demonstrated capability are replacing GPA as the tiebreaker, even if the degree itself remains the entry ticket.

Why it matters: If you have a degree from a strong program, consulting experience, or an MBA, those credentials are still doing heavy lifting in actual hiring decisions, even at companies that publicly say otherwise. The takeaway isn't "credentials are everything." It's that stripping them from your resume because the internet told you skills matter more is a mistake. Lead with your credentials. Then prove you have the skills. The data says you need both, and the people who have both are in a stronger position than the narrative suggests.

LinkedIn's 2026 Skills on the Rise report analyzed year-over-year growth in skill acquisition and hiring success and found something the "learn to code" crowd won't love. The eight fastest-growing skill clusters include AI engineering, yes, but also executive and stakeholder communications, leadership and people management, business revenue growth (account development, go-to-market strategy), and operational efficiency.

AI business strategy and data governance also made the list. The pattern: companies don't just need people who can build AI. They need people who can make AI useful for the business. CNBC called these skills "career currency."

Why it matters: The fastest-growing skills (stakeholder communications, cross-functional leadership, process optimization, go-to-market strategy) are literally the job descriptions of Product, Strategy, and Ops professionals. You don't need to become an AI engineer. You need to become the person who translates AI capability into business value. That's the job you already know how to do.

→ Break into a six-figure job at top tech firms without needing to learn how to code: Join our Inner Circle

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Pick three companies on your target list. Go to LinkedIn, filter by people who were hired in the last year, and look at their education. Do recent hires have degrees from strong programs? What level of experience do they have? Compare that to what the job posting says.

If recent hires all have MBAs and 10+ years of experience but the posting says "bachelor's degree preferred," you're looking at a company in the 45% that changed in name only. That's useful information. It means your credentials are an advantage, and you should lead with them in your application, not bury them.

If recent hires are more mixed, you're looking at a company in the 37% that actually shifted. There, your skills story matters more than your pedigree. Tailor accordingly.

Think about it. The generation that's supposed to fill Director and VP roles next.

The answer: 6%.

That's from Deloitte's 2026 Global Gen Z and Millennial Survey. The top reasons: fear of burnout, stress, and damage to work-life balance. For anyone currently in a senior role, this number explains why your succession pipeline feels thinner than it should.