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> "Your résumé and work ethic are the best I've seen... but I went to college with the dude behind you. Better luck next time!" I think the quip in the image i

by usui 5y ago

> "Your résumé and work ethic are the best I've seen... but I went to college with the dude behind you. Better luck next time!" I think the quip in the image is funny as a joke, but essentially disingenuous, as it doesn't think critically enough about most hiring cases and why someone would choose that Of course, there are situations where people completely unfit for the job apply and get it due to connections, but that doesn't match the majority in hiring. Usually you might find yourself comparing a person who looks stellar on paper and in the interview process—which, by the way, based on the number of articles on Hacker News about how bad the tech interviewing process is, isn't a great indicator either—versus a person who you might already have familiarity with and have a history of working together, and seems decent for the role, just not perfect. When doing hiring for a role, BigN companies always talk about how costly it is for false positives, so they might be willing to take someone whose actual job skills have been vetted to an extent A lot of hiring people would choose decent familiarity over seemingly-great unfamiliarity

Ensorceled 5y ago
You seem to be agreeing the article while taking issue with it. In the comic, "college classmate" is lucky to have known the hiring manager. Luck isn't necessarily bad or evil, as you point out in this case hiring someone you know is just smart; but it's still just luck. Height bias, racial bias, gender bias, are all bad reasons to get lucky.
- Sebb767 5y ago
  > In the comic, "college classmate" is lucky to have known the hiring manager. Well, it also kind of demonstrates the contra-point: The classmate did go to college and use his time there to meet people and form connections. It was still luck he knew the manager (though he might've simply seeked out his connections), but it was definitely possible for him to increase his chances and/or pay off an earlier investment.
  - danaris 5y ago
    But connections are still orthogonal to skill in the job—unless the job is literally all about making and using connections that will help your company. And believing that college is a place you go to make connections is a mark of being born to privilege. The nominal and most fundamental purpose of college is to get an education: either to improve yourself generally, or to gain skills that you can actually use performing a job. Thus, even between two people who went to college, it is extremely likely that someone who went "to meet people and form connections" was lucky enough that they were born into a privileged family.

by usui 5y ago

Ensorceled 5y ago

You seem to be agreeing the article while taking issue with it. In the comic, "college classmate" is lucky to have known the hiring manager. Luck isn't necessarily bad or evil, as you point out in this case hiring someone you know is just smart; but it's still just luck. Height bias, racial bias, gender bias, are all bad reasons to get lucky.

Sebb767 5y ago
> In the comic, "college classmate" is lucky to have known the hiring manager. Well, it also kind of demonstrates the contra-point: The classmate did go to college and use his time there to meet people and form connections. It was still luck he knew the manager (though he might've simply seeked out his connections), but it was definitely possible for him to increase his chances and/or pay off an earlier investment.
- danaris 5y ago
  But connections are still orthogonal to skill in the job—unless the job is literally all about making and using connections that will help your company. And believing that college is a place you go to make connections is a mark of being born to privilege. The nominal and most fundamental purpose of college is to get an education: either to improve yourself generally, or to gain skills that you can actually use performing a job. Thus, even between two people who went to college, it is extremely likely that someone who went "to meet people and form connections" was lucky enough that they were born into a privileged family.