New research recently revealed that the unemployment gap between high school graduates and college graduates is shrinking. Not only that, but both groups seem to be exiting unemployment at similar rates over similar spans of time — suggesting that there’s not much of a benefit to a college degree in terms of finding a job.

This has come with another, stranger development. Some people who are applying for jobs claim that, after removing their college degree from their resume, they started to get more call-backs. In short, they believe that their degree may be the thing keeping them from getting hired.

“i was recently unemployed for months until i randomly decided to remove my bachelor’s degree from my resume. almost immediately, i got like three job offers,” wrote a user on X. “This happened to me. Had to remove my masters degree,” replied another. “I’m 100% sure my PhD is hurting my job prospects,” stated a third.

Why? No one can be sure, but the prevailing (pessimistic) theory is that employers think they can squeeze more out of someone without a degree.

“They think you are overqualified and don’t want someone who would understands that they are being exploited to be there,” said a user. “My old manager said they want people in utter desperation with no hopes of being able to qualify for a better job. having a degree means they know you won’t put up with [expletive] pay and long hours,” offered a second.

If that’s true, no company will ever admit it. But, if you’re struggling to find a career, it may be worth it to strike that one part of your resume. Just pretend you spent the $200k+ on something more useful, I guess.