Not always true. I used to work for a massive technology service company and have just joined a world leading payment business and both wanted to know my GCSE, A-levels and details of both degree's, even with 6yrs continious experience at large blue chip firms. Certain industries want to know what you have done in the past no matter what experience you have until you have - they use it for profiling. My current employer wanted 5yrs experience of what I do, and I have just over 6yrs. Its hard to get much more as the software we use is only 10yrs old itself. This is for a payband of B on a scale of A-F (top-bottom), so a fairly senior role as a technical specialist.
Oh and Gates just cleverly stole Microsoft