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I sense that the fundamental purpose for going to College has changed from "getting an education" to "building your brand" as an individual. I don't work in Hum

I sense that the fundamental purpose for going to College has changed from "getting an education" to "building your brand" as an individual. I don't work in Human Resources, but as a software developer I do spend a lot of time around my company's recruiters and I'm involved in the hiring process. A candidate's alma mater has an outsized impact on the likelihood they will advance to the next step of the hiring process. Most people people don't realize just how much name recognition matters when sifting through resumes. We get hundreds of applications and it's a fact that candidates from well known schools are selected to advance more often than candidates from obscure schools. School prestige and name recognition acts as a proxy assessment of the candidate. HR just doesn't look into how good the Computer Science program is at "Keene State College". But they do know that if someone went to Princeston or Stanford they must be pretty smart. To be clear, a degree from an obscure university does not disqualify someone, but it does put them at a disadvantage when the applicant pool is large.

ryandrake 6y ago
> Most people people don't realize just how much name recognition matters when sifting through resumes. I think most people do realize it, which is why we're seeing what's being written about in the article. People realize if you merely want to be educated, you can do that for cheap or free anywhere, but nobody in HR screening resumes cares if you're educated. They care that you have name-brand pedigree. I remember fighting for a candidate who I thought was super smart and could get things done, but he was from a mid-tier State school and not from Stanford and that was the end of it. It's very classist and ugly. If I graduated today from the school I graduated from in the mid-90s, I wouldn't have a job either. As we all know, this is not just happening in education: All of society is bifurcating into a few winners, and a lot of losers, and a shrinking number in the middle. Everything is has become a slug-fest where the many compete with each other in a high-stakes game for the few viable good opportunities, leaving the rest in ruin.
- Kinrany 6y ago
  Sims + Battle Royale, this is great
- RGamma 6y ago
  The longer I watch this unfold the more become convinced that the US is a giant social experiment to see what happens when you apply profit-maximization to literally everything. Minimize cost, maximize revenue, the difference goes to the pimps: a race with no ending and an evergrowing number of losers. Wonder when this'll fall apart (if ever). I guess it's a good thing the majority of people worldwide are not exposed to this and therefore potentially get the benefit to observe and learn from it. Take care.
  - ryandrake 6y ago
    > Minimize cost, maximize revenue, the difference goes to the pimps: a race with no ending and an evergrowing number of losers. You forgot the key: Split the "losers" roughly 50-50 along some carefully crafted political/ideological lines, and have them fight each other rather than unite and fight the pimps.
- 908B64B197 6y ago
  > I remember fighting for a candidate who I thought was super smart and could get things done, but he was from a mid-tier State school and not from Stanford and that was the end of it. If HR has anything to do with how engineers are selected there's something wrong with the company. They are there to schedule interviews and take care of the paperwork.
  - lokar 6y ago
    Recruiters (part of HR) select the subset of resumes that an engineer (IC or manager) will then pick from to have an actual (phone) interview. It really sort of has to work that way. The volume and variance in quality is just overwhelming. There is no way someone technical could look at every resume.
    - 908B64B197 6y ago
      Yeah, but the parent referred to a time where he (an engineer) specifically screened a candidate for an engineering position. In this case, the HR rep's opinion should have been ignored right away.
andrewmcwatters 6y ago
Yeah, that's not how it works for a majority of jobs in America. I'm 100% sure that's true for top companies in world cities, but it just isn't true even in most of the top 100 cities in the US. And believe it or not, there really are top companies that look at actual accomplishments and skillsets and not your CV. Incredulous, I know. You'd be very mistaken if you think there aren't managers out there with the power to do their own hiring. It's not hard. Most companies are lucky if they can even find someone ranging from competent to excellent for a given role. It's hard enough to do that. And if you land on an excellent candidate, most don't know how to retain them, because it's not economically feasible to do so. They leave, because they're consistently looking to maximize their earnings, or they're smart enough to start their own business.
ct0 6y ago
Companies absolutely are looking at how good the CS program is at Keene State College.

ryandrake 6y ago

> Most people people don't realize just how much name recognition matters when sifting through resumes. I think most people do realize it, which is why we're seeing what's being written about in the article. People realize if you merely want to be educated, you can do that for cheap or free anywhere, but nobody in HR screening resumes cares if you're educated. They care that you have name-brand pedigree. I remember fighting for a candidate who I thought was super smart and could get things done, but he was from a mid-tier State school and not from Stanford and that was the end of it. It's very classist and ugly. If I graduated today from the school I graduated from in the mid-90s, I wouldn't have a job either. As we all know, this is not just happening in education: All of society is bifurcating into a few winners, and a lot of losers, and a shrinking number in the middle. Everything is has become a slug-fest where the many compete with each other in a high-stakes game for the few viable good opportunities, leaving the rest in ruin.

Kinrany 6y ago
Sims + Battle Royale, this is great
RGamma 6y ago
The longer I watch this unfold the more become convinced that the US is a giant social experiment to see what happens when you apply profit-maximization to literally everything. Minimize cost, maximize revenue, the difference goes to the pimps: a race with no ending and an evergrowing number of losers. Wonder when this'll fall apart (if ever). I guess it's a good thing the majority of people worldwide are not exposed to this and therefore potentially get the benefit to observe and learn from it. Take care.
- ryandrake 6y ago
  > Minimize cost, maximize revenue, the difference goes to the pimps: a race with no ending and an evergrowing number of losers. You forgot the key: Split the "losers" roughly 50-50 along some carefully crafted political/ideological lines, and have them fight each other rather than unite and fight the pimps.
908B64B197 6y ago
> I remember fighting for a candidate who I thought was super smart and could get things done, but he was from a mid-tier State school and not from Stanford and that was the end of it. If HR has anything to do with how engineers are selected there's something wrong with the company. They are there to schedule interviews and take care of the paperwork.
- lokar 6y ago
  Recruiters (part of HR) select the subset of resumes that an engineer (IC or manager) will then pick from to have an actual (phone) interview. It really sort of has to work that way. The volume and variance in quality is just overwhelming. There is no way someone technical could look at every resume.
  - 908B64B197 6y ago
    Yeah, but the parent referred to a time where he (an engineer) specifically screened a candidate for an engineering position. In this case, the HR rep's opinion should have been ignored right away.

andrewmcwatters 6y ago

Yeah, that's not how it works for a majority of jobs in America. I'm 100% sure that's true for top companies in world cities, but it just isn't true even in most of the top 100 cities in the US. And believe it or not, there really are top companies that look at actual accomplishments and skillsets and not your CV. Incredulous, I know. You'd be very mistaken if you think there aren't managers out there with the power to do their own hiring. It's not hard. Most companies are lucky if they can even find someone ranging from competent to excellent for a given role. It's hard enough to do that. And if you land on an excellent candidate, most don't know how to retain them, because it's not economically feasible to do so. They leave, because they're consistently looking to maximize their earnings, or they're smart enough to start their own business.

ct0 6y ago

Companies absolutely are looking at how good the CS program is at Keene State College.