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I am far less impressed with a candidate who went to an Ivy than I am with one who went to a lower-tier state school and is at the top of their game. Everything

I am far less impressed with a candidate who went to an Ivy than I am with one who went to a lower-tier state school and is at the top of their game. Everything is an uphill climb for the latter. In fact, every entrepreneur I’ve worked for went to a no-name school and was fabulously successful. Going to Harvard gets you a foot in the door for your first job, and into some social groups that you don’t want to be in anyway because they are generally super lame and full of nobodies who just talk about who elite they are. Far, far more fascinating are those that lived life on “hard mode”. Another anecdote, I once did a recruiting effort at Harvard and received a resume from someone who got a perfect score on their SATs and then got on a national talk show for it, with a link to YouTube! I didn’t wind up hiring them but I received a follow up email where he declared that I was rejected by him with a list of reasons why my company was beneath him! Unreal that these people actually exist.

blueboo 7y ago
Are you unimpressed with rich candidates, or is there a taint to getting admitted to an an exclusive university? For some, that admission is a far greater achievement than acing a CS curriculum at a state school later in life. It might be worth examining and separating out your biases.
- cosmodisk 7y ago
  He's referring to a subcategory of people at Harvard who are full of unreasonable entitlement and under different circumstances wouldn't find their way out of a paper bag. I had a young American colleague,here in London,who was like this.Went to a fairly good school,got a job at a large corp, and eventually came to London to work for his dad's friend.While he did a reasonable job,the rest was absolutely awful: everyone was somewhat less smart than him,only he knew how to do shit, and ultimately he was the smartest guy in the room .Then obviously all the talks about how the US is land of opportunity and anyone could make it big there only if they put in some effort. The reality is that 90% of his "success" is attributed to one person- his dad, who's a pretty expensive lawyer and could bankroll his sons journey all the way from cradle to London.
- linksnapzz 7y ago
  You first. Admission to an exclusive university MAY be indicative of some achievement-but that achievement might be "how best to impress the sort of people who work for an Exclusive University's admissions office." I might not feel that those are the best sorts to try and spend one's teenage years working to impress.

blueboo 7y ago

Are you unimpressed with rich candidates, or is there a taint to getting admitted to an an exclusive university? For some, that admission is a far greater achievement than acing a CS curriculum at a state school later in life. It might be worth examining and separating out your biases.

cosmodisk 7y ago
He's referring to a subcategory of people at Harvard who are full of unreasonable entitlement and under different circumstances wouldn't find their way out of a paper bag. I had a young American colleague,here in London,who was like this.Went to a fairly good school,got a job at a large corp, and eventually came to London to work for his dad's friend.While he did a reasonable job,the rest was absolutely awful: everyone was somewhat less smart than him,only he knew how to do shit, and ultimately he was the smartest guy in the room .Then obviously all the talks about how the US is land of opportunity and anyone could make it big there only if they put in some effort. The reality is that 90% of his "success" is attributed to one person- his dad, who's a pretty expensive lawyer and could bankroll his sons journey all the way from cradle to London.
linksnapzz 7y ago
You first. Admission to an exclusive university MAY be indicative of some achievement-but that achievement might be "how best to impress the sort of people who work for an Exclusive University's admissions office." I might not feel that those are the best sorts to try and spend one's teenage years working to impress.