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I find people with college experience are much more likely to be biased against people without than vice versa. But that is just my anecdotal experience. Google

I find people with college experience are much more likely to be biased against people without than vice versa. But that is just my anecdotal experience. Google and Dropbox definitely had more people with degrees but a decent amount of people without. The hiring pipelines were more biased towards recruiting new grads out of good schools but we never turned down solid people with good experience. I generally like to work with people, and at places, that value your contributions and experience rather than your credentials. I've been lucky enough to find that in every place I've worked. I can't say my experience has been one of only working with people without degrees. I've worked with amazing engineers with and without degrees and don't put much stock in the degree itself.

user5994461 8y ago
Well, it takes a degree or 5 years of relevant experience to enter the front door. Better have both. I wouldn't call it a bias, companies have different expectations and needs. At big name, there are a hundred people applying every day, the bar is higher than no degree and/or little experience. There is also the fact that the lack of education puts one at a disadvantage. For instance, I know of co workers who ask questions about complexity, compilers and graphs. It's common for candidates with no formal education to be completely oblivious to these.
- gmjosack 8y ago
  I think it's a bias to assume the candidate won't understand those things or be suitable for the job based on lack of college alone. If you require people to understand complexity, compilers, and graphs to do the job effectively then test for those. I've encountered plenty of people with degrees who similarly didn't understand those concepts. I definitely agree that lack of education is a disadvantage, it just means you have to start a different way. that could mean your first few years is coming in through a side door before you start getting relevant experience.
  - user5994461 8y ago
    I think we both agree. The lack of degree will mean years of bad jobs and learning the hard way though practice, before it can be compensated. It's years of struggling on the job, instead of in the college.
    - mmjaa 8y ago
      .. making money rather than going into debt. Plus there's the uncomfortable fact for academics that the state of the art is often pushed forward in industry, and written about in academy. So, sometimes, the job is really, really good. You're doing stuff now that kids will be learning about in 5 years...

user5994461 8y ago

Well, it takes a degree or 5 years of relevant experience to enter the front door. Better have both. I wouldn't call it a bias, companies have different expectations and needs. At big name, there are a hundred people applying every day, the bar is higher than no degree and/or little experience. There is also the fact that the lack of education puts one at a disadvantage. For instance, I know of co workers who ask questions about complexity, compilers and graphs. It's common for candidates with no formal education to be completely oblivious to these.

gmjosack 8y ago
I think it's a bias to assume the candidate won't understand those things or be suitable for the job based on lack of college alone. If you require people to understand complexity, compilers, and graphs to do the job effectively then test for those. I've encountered plenty of people with degrees who similarly didn't understand those concepts. I definitely agree that lack of education is a disadvantage, it just means you have to start a different way. that could mean your first few years is coming in through a side door before you start getting relevant experience.
- user5994461 8y ago
  I think we both agree. The lack of degree will mean years of bad jobs and learning the hard way though practice, before it can be compensated. It's years of struggling on the job, instead of in the college.
  - mmjaa 8y ago
    .. making money rather than going into debt. Plus there's the uncomfortable fact for academics that the state of the art is often pushed forward in industry, and written about in academy. So, sometimes, the job is really, really good. You're doing stuff now that kids will be learning about in 5 years...