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An anecdote about the evolving value of higher education: I received a resume recently for a junior software engineer role. Under the 'Education' section was a
by seibelj 8y ago
An anecdote about the evolving value of higher education:
I received a resume recently for a junior software engineer role. Under the 'Education' section was a paragraph that listed a prestigious university and entrance year, but under it stated something like, "I was accepted to this university, but rather than attend and go over $100,000 in debt, I taught myself computer science and coding for 3 years with online tutorials. Here are the projects I did over that time," with links to a github repo showing the projects from his self study.
I gave him a phone screen, and while he wasn't a fit, I did not exclude him because of the nature of his education.
I think more hiring managers in companies that are struggling to find talent will begin to accept this narrative about education. The signal to me (if it checked out) was his acceptance to a prestigious school, and his lack of attendance was not very important to me, provided he could do the work.
- mlthoughts2018 8y agoI’m not optimistic. Nobody is actually struggling to find talent, rather they are just not willing to pay competitive wages. If your goal is to underpay someone at all costs, then I agree getting creative with the types of candidate backgrounds you’ll consider might work. Otherwise, college experience is just another way of getting some signal or info about a candidate’s talent. It’s not a guarantee of anything, just an often useful signal.
- smt88 8y agoI don't under-pay anyone, but like most people hiring for desirable jobs, I have too many resumes to sort through and could never interview everyone. You find yourself reaching for quick filters, even if they're not perfect. Could I miss out on great candidates by interviewing only people with college degrees? Yes, and I'm sure I have. But the ones I have interviewed have also ended up being the worst interviews of my career, and it had nothing to do with technical skill. YMMV
- alienallys 8y agoThis might be possible for probably computer science education, if you want to be a lawyer, banker, architect college education is MUST
- smt88 8y agoDisagree about banking (having gone to business school and worked on Wall Street myself), but would add doctor/nurse, engineer, psychologist, and most other jobs that will survive the automation apocalypse.
- AstralStorm 8y agoUnlikely, expert systems outperform doctors at diagnosis already. Nursing, perhaps not yet. There are supposed to be exams not requiring education, but internship is still a prerequisite and hard to get. Engineering is mostly mathematics and physics. Doable by machines. You probably meant design instead. Psychologist, well, first they have to actually be good at it...
- seibelj 8y agoI think someone could self study and become a lawyer or banker / stock broker, but licensing requirements would prevent it (not necessarily for good reason).
- dbcurtis 8y agoIn some states, California being one, you can "read law" while working for a member of the bar and then sit for the bar exam. The CA bar exam has 45% pass rate though, with most takers having gone to a good law school. YMMV indeed.
- pkaye 8y agoI've had much success with approach though I'm open to it. I'd much more success with those who had a degree but later switched to software development.