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I grew up poor enough that I got a full need-based ride to a state school. The SAT helped me differentiate myself from all the kids with expensive summer camps,

I grew up poor enough that I got a full need-based ride to a state school. The SAT helped me differentiate myself from all the kids with expensive summer camps, tutoring for competitions, and expensive sports lessons that didn't actually do that well in school. > Google style hiring process A couple leetcode questions is hardly a difficult task compared to getting matched for residency as a doctor or accruing enough volunteering experience as a poor college kid for law school. Don't even get me started on investment banking. Sorry that reality has hit you I guess? My perspective has always been that if you fail you should get up, evaluate what went wrong, and try again. > but I was rejected everywhere I applied Did you try going to community college and transferring?

0x20cowboy 5y ago
Don't want to go too much into this, but thanks for the thoughtful response. > A couple leetcode questions is hardly a difficult task I don't have a problem with data structures and the like. I've been building software for >20 years. I can do pretty much anything I want with a computer. However, and I can't articulate this well, but where I come from "high pressure" things mean people are getting killed - it's not fun. I don't do hackathons either for the same reason. The whole argumentative style of communication doesn't work so I just stop answering. Like I said, they are filtering out people like me on purpose, and it's fine. > Did you try going to community college and transferring? That is not something I could do at this stage. I tried to get into a few online degrees which have a more flexible schedule. Several years ago, I did try to go to a community college, but none of my current bachelors credits would transfer (they are from an online school which no institution apparently counts as valid). So I'd have to start over from scratch. This is turning into a life story here. I have indeed tried - for a very, very long time. I've given up on the idea of going to school or working at some hip company now, and I've made peace with it. Anyway, thanks for asking.

0x20cowboy 5y ago

Don't want to go too much into this, but thanks for the thoughtful response. > A couple leetcode questions is hardly a difficult task I don't have a problem with data structures and the like. I've been building software for >20 years. I can do pretty much anything I want with a computer. However, and I can't articulate this well, but where I come from "high pressure" things mean people are getting killed - it's not fun. I don't do hackathons either for the same reason. The whole argumentative style of communication doesn't work so I just stop answering. Like I said, they are filtering out people like me on purpose, and it's fine. > Did you try going to community college and transferring? That is not something I could do at this stage. I tried to get into a few online degrees which have a more flexible schedule. Several years ago, I did try to go to a community college, but none of my current bachelors credits would transfer (they are from an online school which no institution apparently counts as valid). So I'd have to start over from scratch. This is turning into a life story here. I have indeed tried - for a very, very long time. I've given up on the idea of going to school or working at some hip company now, and I've made peace with it. Anyway, thanks for asking.