14 ms·
The big question is "what is Y in this case"?
by mac01021 6y ago
The big question is "what is Y in this case"?
- quietbritishjim 6y agoPerhaps a degree from one of the "best" colleges/universities in the country.
- nix23 6y agoMore like having the best connection's from the university/family/friends ;)
- quietbritishjim 6y agoI never said the degree was a benefit itself! Just that it might satisfy "Most successful people have X" (Although, here in the UK at least, the quality of degrees genuinely does vary by university in a way that roughly corresponds to their rankings. I know that's an unfashionable observable but I have seen enough degree programs at different universities to know it's likely true unless I happen to have seen an atonishingly unrepresentative sample. Partly this is self fulfilling because lower ranked universities are forced to take less good students and the level of the programme has to be adjusted accordingly, but part of it really is to do with quality of teaching.)
- C1sc0cat 6y agoIt does vary when I worked at BT, one of our students doing a year out had lectures from one of the people who built the Manchester Baby. On our team we had a guy from ENA and he was the son of a French diplomat and a British mother - we quickly learnt he did not need any hand holding.
- reportgunner 6y agohttps://eu.packersnews.com/story/news/nation/2020/07/28/rick-singer-mastermind-college-admissions-scandal-grand-canyon-university-student/5524754002/ https://eu.packersnews.com/story/news/nation/2020/07/28/rick...
- zajio1am 6y agoTo prove intelligence and conscientiousness? Probably PhD degree.
- blaser-waffle 6y agoBollocks. Ph.Ds don't mean much unless you want to do research and provide cheap labor for 5 years. I'd say a Master's is the new BA/BS. With everyone getting an undergrad degree via online schools, or via 6+ years of undergrad college, it's ability to filter is weak. A brick-and-mortar Master's serves as a way to differentiate from that pack; I'm not sure what an online Master's equates to.
- minicoz 6y agoNow there are online degrees from good brick-and-mortar schools that do not mention they are online. Georgia Techs OMSA, OMSCS, UT Austin Masters in DS, CS online.
- rootusrootus 6y agoMaybe an online master's will actually be a better filter than brick-and-mortar? I'd say it takes more fortitude to stick with an online program and finish it, so at some point maybe 'online' won't be a pejorative, it'll be a bragging point.
- chrisco255 6y agoThat just proves how masochistic you are.
- baron_harkonnen 6y agoA PhD only signals that you have an unhealthy relationship with academia. I've interviewed and worked with so many PhD from top tier schools and it's astounding to me that someone can spend 6+ years studying a quantitative science, at a school like MIT or Harvard and still not have a basic understanding of statistics, and worse be incapable of genuinely understanding any of the quantitative tools they used for years. The current generation of PhDs don't know how to do any kind of real research, they simply know how to mechanically replicate the processes you need to survive in academia today.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jbob2000 6y agoHaving your parents fund your startup and getting all their friends to support you until you hit critical mass where you don't need their help anymore.
- elindbe2 6y agoA job at Google? I've seen plenty of videos and articles with titles like: "Ex-googler explains the meaning of life".
- jsolson 6y agoPerhaps it is only upon leaving Google that one achieves transcendence? (Source: I work at Google, yet still see life as often confusing and sometimes terrifying)
- parsnips 6y agoBetter leave now while there's still value in leaving!
- mpfundstein 6y agoyes sometimes you need to see the worst in order to appreciate the little :-)
- bananaface 6y agoTechlead isn't serious
- atom-morgan 6y agoTeaching yourself new skills using the Internet.
- devalgo 6y agoPeople always parrot this but how many Doctors do you know with no degree? Take a poll at Google engineers and see how many are actually self taught and have no degree. How many Wall Street bankers/traders/etc have no degree? How many US Senators have no degree? How many World Leaders in history have had no formal education? Not counting dropouts, what percentage of Billionaires have no college education? The reality is still that the overwhelming majority of "successful" people still have degrees. You can argue what the root of this is whether it's the added knowledge or signalling of the degree, or intrinsic self motivation of the person, etc. but that fact still remains.
- rgblambda 6y ago> You can argue what the root of this is whether it's the added knowledge or signalling of the degree, or intrinsic self motivation of the person, etc. but that fact still remains. More discussion on "the root of this" might lead to the above changing.
- devalgo 6y agoI agree, but it hasn't changed yet. Despite the "teach truckers to code" kind of rhetoric and survivorship bias of self taught coders.
- foxyv 6y agoUsually 2+ years of experience in a certain field.
- MuffinFlavored 6y agoHow do you get enough experience for employers in said field to take a chance on you? It's all about getting over that initial hurdle of 100% unexperienced.
- foxyv 6y agoUsually by being willing to work for peanuts for a really low budget place.
- SketchySeaBeast 6y agoAnd that do all fields have budget places where you can work in for peanuts? Are all fields of the "just figure it out on the job" variety? Software is a weird bubble, but are all industries able to do that?
- foxyv 6y agoYeah, for the most part. You have to get your foot in the door. Usually by having a family member or friend give you a leg up. There are few professions that have some sort of on-the job learning for the inexperienced that can be replaced by college. Especially at the BS/BA level. If you don't have that foot in the door you are usually spending a few years working for "Exposure" or "Networking opportunities." Sometimes for minimum wage or less. Unless the job is so hard that it's constantly churning workers. I'm sure a lot of jobs will take you off the street with no experience, but they will be dangerous and/or unpleasant. Naturally when generalizing there will be exceptions. But that was essentially the rule when I got out of college. 2+ years experience prerequisite for most "Entry-Level" positions.
- stillbourne 6y agoI think we should bring back the guild system. Start a job as an apprentice, mentor with a journeyman, progress your way up, mentor apprentices while learning from others higher up, gain sufficient knowledge to build your masterpiece, graduate as a master in your field, mentor journeymen. Move on.
- Arkdy 6y ago8th Light is a software company that's been explicitly practicing apprenticeship for like 12 years https://8thlight.com/blog/ryan-verner/2019/01/15/evolution-of-apprenticeship.html https://8thlight.com/blog/ryan-verner/2019/01/15/evolution-o...
- C1sc0cat 6y agoAs someone who came into the industry through the vocational track this is interesting. But it is confusing are 8th Light acting as a source of training for other companies or just internal use. How many years is it 4 / 5 what certification do you get at the end? Why are you using "trade" terminology normally those doing "advanced apprenticeship" where associate professions and calling us "apprentices" would have got you a hard look. when I did mine in the UK I was a Junior member of the IMECHE on the path way to full chartered (PE) membership It does seem a bit light how long is the apprenticeship If FANG companies where serious about training / diversity this is what they should be doing take bright high school kids at 18/19 and sign them up for a proper 4/5 year apprenticeship.
- psychometry 6y agoWho's going to pay for someone to be unproductive at their job? Corporations surely don't want to anymore.
- stillbourne 6y agoYou mean you can't have lower level people working on bug fixes and small tasks while you save bigger more difficult work for more advanced people? Who says they won't be productive? What is your measure of productivity?