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Do you really need to test whether a candidate is technically competent if they have a degree from a well respected university like MIT, etc? You already know h

Do you really need to test whether a candidate is technically competent if they have a degree from a well respected university like MIT, etc? You already know he has the discipline and academic requisites. Interviewing someone at that point, I'd expect the employer would be more interested to see if they're a good fit for the company culture and not waste time on academic trivialities.

greggman 10y ago
Well, Laszlo Bock claims Google looked at the data and found zero correlation between having a degree from a well respected university and being useful at Google http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman... So no, using a degree isn't useful for hiring engineers apparently
- laichzeit0 10y ago
  That's pretty weird though. Is using a degree useful for hiring medical doctors, mechanical engineers, actuaries? It's really hard to believe that only Computer Science as a field has a problem where it's churning out people who are technically incapable of programming to such a degree that you need to explicitly test them in interviews through "puzzles".
  - greggman 10y ago
    Maybe they all have that problem and no one has ever bother to actually check the data? I know for me and interviewing programmers my personal experience is the degree doesn't matter. I've met plenty of degreed "engineers" who couldn't program for shit from schools like MIT and Harvard. I've also met some amazing programmers from those same places. I don't know what make the difference except possible love of the activity. Not sure how to asses that in an interview or whether it correlates better with outcomes.
  - icebraining 10y ago
    For medical doctors, having a degree just means you get to spend years in a residency training program under supervision. SEs also have internships, but they usually want someone they don't need to train from 'scratch'.
- ZeroGravitas 10y ago
  The common response to various claims that Google make based on their HR data is: "But they only looked at the people who succesfully got hired at Google". Which seems a fair criticism to me. Google's hiring process may be as wacky and broken as any other corp, but they're a big name, and will attract a lot of very good applicants. So "People who got succesfully got hired at Google, and don't have a prestigious degree, do about as well as people who got hired at Google and did have a prestigious degree." If you're on the outside looking to get a job, you'd probably want to know what percentage of Google employees had prestigous degrees, and what other resume filling achievements the non-prestigious degree crowd had before basing any life decisions on this data point.
Teeboo 10y ago
I have met some people with degrees, from extremely respected institutions, who I would not let organise the coffee in a startup let alone be involved in serious business tasks. Likewise, some of the best engineers I have met were self-taught and curious.

greggman 10y ago

Well, Laszlo Bock claims Google looked at the data and found zero correlation between having a degree from a well respected university and being useful at Google http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman... So no, using a degree isn't useful for hiring engineers apparently

laichzeit0 10y ago
That's pretty weird though. Is using a degree useful for hiring medical doctors, mechanical engineers, actuaries? It's really hard to believe that only Computer Science as a field has a problem where it's churning out people who are technically incapable of programming to such a degree that you need to explicitly test them in interviews through "puzzles".
- greggman 10y ago
  Maybe they all have that problem and no one has ever bother to actually check the data? I know for me and interviewing programmers my personal experience is the degree doesn't matter. I've met plenty of degreed "engineers" who couldn't program for shit from schools like MIT and Harvard. I've also met some amazing programmers from those same places. I don't know what make the difference except possible love of the activity. Not sure how to asses that in an interview or whether it correlates better with outcomes.
- icebraining 10y ago
  For medical doctors, having a degree just means you get to spend years in a residency training program under supervision. SEs also have internships, but they usually want someone they don't need to train from 'scratch'.
ZeroGravitas 10y ago
The common response to various claims that Google make based on their HR data is: "But they only looked at the people who succesfully got hired at Google". Which seems a fair criticism to me. Google's hiring process may be as wacky and broken as any other corp, but they're a big name, and will attract a lot of very good applicants. So "People who got succesfully got hired at Google, and don't have a prestigious degree, do about as well as people who got hired at Google and did have a prestigious degree." If you're on the outside looking to get a job, you'd probably want to know what percentage of Google employees had prestigous degrees, and what other resume filling achievements the non-prestigious degree crowd had before basing any life decisions on this data point.

Teeboo 10y ago

I have met some people with degrees, from extremely respected institutions, who I would not let organise the coffee in a startup let alone be involved in serious business tasks. Likewise, some of the best engineers I have met were self-taught and curious.