4 ms·

I have no college experience, and no one has ever even asked. I've never once had to justify it or discuss it in an interview. Education is no where on my resum

I have no college experience, and no one has ever even asked. I've never once had to justify it or discuss it in an interview. Education is no where on my resume.

pharrlax 10y ago
I'm guessing you're not a high school principal.
jonny_eh 10y ago
With that level of honesty you'll never be the CEO of a company like Yahoo. http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/13/technology/yahoo-ceo-out/ http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/13/technology/yahoo-ceo-out/
jlarocco 10y ago
It's hard to know how impressed to be without knowing what you do ;-) Usually the only time education is important on a resume is when a person has no other relevant experience.
- mratzloff 10y ago
  Or in academia.
  - pc86 10y ago
    Or in most non-tech jobs. You can't be a nutritionist without a four-year degree in Nutrition (or I believe a few very closely related fields). There are even some fitness certifications you can't get without (any) four-year degree. No amount of self-study or exam passage will get you to be an RN. Tech is an outlier in that education is secondary to most other factors. I'm happy for that because my Political Science degree isn't worth much, but there are even tech companies that require a degree, or a STEM degree, to be software developers.
    - magic_beans 10y ago
      I suspect that requirements for degrees in STEM have much more to do with weeding out "undesirables" from your hiring process. Many companies won't even take candidates from non-ivies + soft ivies (Stanford, CM, etc).
      - jlarocco 10y ago
        That's a pretty strong generalization to present without evidence. I'm sure some companies favor candidates from certain schools, but I've never seen any evidence that it's a systemic problem. The one exception I can think of is high level, publicly facing positions. I could see a company choosing a CTO with a PhD from MIT over one with a PhD from somewhere else, just to impress investors, for example. For rank and file software engineer positions, alma mater isn't usually so important. As far as STEM goes, those fields require so much math and other background knowledge that it's almost unbelievable that somebody could learn it all on their own. Not that it's impossible, but it's a pretty wild claim, and it's reasonable that people would be suspicious.
- DanBC 10y ago
  Or when they're applying for a job that requires a professional registration, where that registration requires a specific qualification.
charles-salvia 10y ago
It doesn't seem to matter as much in the technology world. When I look at people's resumes I barely even glance over the Education section. I mean, I'll take note if it's something extreme like a 4.0 at Stanford, but for the most part nobody cares anymore.

I have no college experience, and no one has ever even asked. I've never once had to justify it or discuss it in an interview. Education is no where on my resume.

pharrlax 10y ago

I'm guessing you're not a high school principal.

jonny_eh 10y ago

With that level of honesty you'll never be the CEO of a company like Yahoo. http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/13/technology/yahoo-ceo-out/ http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/13/technology/yahoo-ceo-out/

jlarocco 10y ago

It's hard to know how impressed to be without knowing what you do ;-) Usually the only time education is important on a resume is when a person has no other relevant experience.

mratzloff 10y ago
Or in academia.
- pc86 10y ago
  Or in most non-tech jobs. You can't be a nutritionist without a four-year degree in Nutrition (or I believe a few very closely related fields). There are even some fitness certifications you can't get without (any) four-year degree. No amount of self-study or exam passage will get you to be an RN. Tech is an outlier in that education is secondary to most other factors. I'm happy for that because my Political Science degree isn't worth much, but there are even tech companies that require a degree, or a STEM degree, to be software developers.
  - magic_beans 10y ago
    I suspect that requirements for degrees in STEM have much more to do with weeding out "undesirables" from your hiring process. Many companies won't even take candidates from non-ivies + soft ivies (Stanford, CM, etc).
    - jlarocco 10y ago
      That's a pretty strong generalization to present without evidence. I'm sure some companies favor candidates from certain schools, but I've never seen any evidence that it's a systemic problem. The one exception I can think of is high level, publicly facing positions. I could see a company choosing a CTO with a PhD from MIT over one with a PhD from somewhere else, just to impress investors, for example. For rank and file software engineer positions, alma mater isn't usually so important. As far as STEM goes, those fields require so much math and other background knowledge that it's almost unbelievable that somebody could learn it all on their own. Not that it's impossible, but it's a pretty wild claim, and it's reasonable that people would be suspicious.
DanBC 10y ago
Or when they're applying for a job that requires a professional registration, where that registration requires a specific qualification.

charles-salvia 10y ago

It doesn't seem to matter as much in the technology world. When I look at people's resumes I barely even glance over the Education section. I mean, I'll take note if it's something extreme like a 4.0 at Stanford, but for the most part nobody cares anymore.