When Donna started her work as a telephone operator in 1960, she did not have a high school diploma. Now, her granddaughter hopes to apply for the same job, but the ad for the job says that a "four-year college degree" is a preferred job qualification. Though the work of the job is slightly different than it was in 1960, what a student studies in college is fairly irrelevant to what the job duties actually are. This is an example of

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The correct answer is credential inflation, which refers to the increasing demand for educational qualifications, such as college degrees, for jobs that previously did not require such qualifications. This phenomenon is illustrated by the change in requirements for the telephone operator job from no high school diploma in 1960 to preferring a four-year college degree now, despite the job duties not necessarily requiring college-level education.

When Donna Started Her Work as a Telephone Operator in 1960