The Devaluation of Experience in the Age of Credentialism

The other day I came across an ad for a Senior Copywriter that required 3+ years experience.  Three years.  Oh, and a degree in a related field, which I guess supposedly bridges the deep gaping chasm of inexperience. 

When I started in this business, anyone with between one and three years experience was a junior. Three to six was intermediate and seven-plus was senior.  But I guess in this age of soccer trophies, calling a junior a senior helps bolster his or her self esteem.  Or is something else in play?

Maybe it is because agencies prefer to offer title over salary—the "We'll pay you a fraction of what the job entails but you'll have an impressive business card" approach. 

Or maybe it is because HR departments believe that because someone earned a degree in whatever, they're inherently more qualified than another who has done the job for years.  I'm not knocking degrees (OK, I am a bit) but having one doesn't automatically mean you're smart or qualified.  It just means you've read a bunch of stuff on a subject, wrote a bunch of things on a subject and, hopefully, you actually passed that subject rather than had your grades inflated.  It's another piece of paper, like the basic Word doc resume, that only shows is what you have done in the past not what your potential is in the future. And the bigger, the more specialized the degree (to paraphrase Thomas Sowell), the more likely you're unaware of your own vast sea of ignorance surrounding the small island of your knowledge. 

I tend to lean towards the former because the output of agencies these days shows there is no big idea anymore.  It is now making the quarterly sales target.  It is about ignoring the inherent flaws, and growing fraud, in online advertising and metrics for as long as the money keeps flowing.  It's about the industry being run by lawyers, accountants, managers, planners, data analysts—anyone and everyone except those who actually create the work. 

I guess as long as clients can't recognize, or are willing to accept, the mediocre, not much will change. One can only hope there are a few agency renegades out there plotting to undermine the business model to create a new movement in advertising that's jargon-free, original, and accountable.