4 ms·

I've got no opinion of the quality of instruction; I don't have the experience of either one. All I'm saying is that most people didn't go to an elite school,

by lsc 9y ago

I've got no opinion of the quality of instruction; I don't have the experience of either one. All I'm saying is that most people didn't go to an elite school, and yet a lot of the really prestigious and remunerative Engineering and engineering/management positions from 2-4 levels up from me are occupied by graduates of elite schools. The higher up you go, it seems, the higher proportion of them went to an elite school. I mean, that's totally unscientific, and just my perception, but if we could correlate the school you graduated from with people employed at the top-tier Engineering shops in the bay area, I bet elite schools would be vastly over-represented.

bsder 9y ago
Mostly bias, I suspect. If you polled management from Westinghouse in the 1990's, you would find Pitt, CMU, Penn State and OSU overrepresented. One thing you have to be careful of is that "elite" school graduates often have an over-inflated sense of how good they actually are. The ex-CTO of ModCloth had a video talking to a bunch of Russians where he talked about how the Pittsburgh team was better and more productive and that the SFO team was unjustifiably arrogant. The guy was Adil Wali. Man, it took me way too long to find this. I guess ModCloth PR has sanitized the web: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4qYFqpLQBc#t=1h20m https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4qYFqpLQBc#t=1h20m
- lsc 9y ago
  >Mostly bias, I suspect. If bias gets you a significantly more remunerative or prestigious job, well, that should be factored into your return on investment, if you are looking for renumeration or prestige or to work around people with prestige. >One thing you have to be careful of is that "elite" school graduates often have an over-inflated sense of how good they actually are. My experience of the world is that having an over-inflated sense of your own worth doesn't hurt you any. It's sad, because I personally find that kind of overconfidence super annoying, but if you are trying to maximize your career...

by lsc 9y ago

bsder 9y ago

Mostly bias, I suspect. If you polled management from Westinghouse in the 1990's, you would find Pitt, CMU, Penn State and OSU overrepresented. One thing you have to be careful of is that "elite" school graduates often have an over-inflated sense of how good they actually are. The ex-CTO of ModCloth had a video talking to a bunch of Russians where he talked about how the Pittsburgh team was better and more productive and that the SFO team was unjustifiably arrogant. The guy was Adil Wali. Man, it took me way too long to find this. I guess ModCloth PR has sanitized the web: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4qYFqpLQBc#t=1h20m https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4qYFqpLQBc#t=1h20m

lsc 9y ago
>Mostly bias, I suspect. If bias gets you a significantly more remunerative or prestigious job, well, that should be factored into your return on investment, if you are looking for renumeration or prestige or to work around people with prestige. >One thing you have to be careful of is that "elite" school graduates often have an over-inflated sense of how good they actually are. My experience of the world is that having an over-inflated sense of your own worth doesn't hurt you any. It's sad, because I personally find that kind of overconfidence super annoying, but if you are trying to maximize your career...