4 ms·

The talent. Meebo was started by Stanford grads... Can we please get over this dopey fixation on big-name elite schools?

Karunamon 14y ago
Elite schools tend to have elite people. Funny how that works.
- rhizome 14y ago
  Stanford is not an elite school, it's a status school with what many say is a huge amount of grade-inflation. Elite schools are ones like RPI, Bard, various sports schools (Michigan/Okla, UNC, etc.), and so on. The only "elite" quality Stanford has is its location and the presence of a few celebrities.
Cyranix 14y ago
So... the fact that Google also has some Stanford background doesn't seem pertinent to you? What an unusual knee-jerk reaction.
- jpeterson 14y ago
  Yes, it is pertinent. But that doesn't change the fact that it's a really dumb way to evaluate the "talent" of a person or company.
hack_edu 14y ago
Unfortunately tons of firms put a huge value in this. Try getting a high level rockstar-ninja-badass (lol) engineer job, especially at a bay area startup, without some sort of pedigree from a named institution. Its bullshit, but reality. Google used to, might still, place a degree from a top-tier institution as the first requirement in upper level job postings.
- strlen 14y ago
  > Unfortunately tons of firms put a huge value in this. Try getting a high level rockstar-ninja-badass (lol) engineer job, especially at a bay area startup, without some sort of pedigree from a named institution. Its bullshit, but reality. I've worked at or (or received employment offers from) quite a few "name brand" Bay Area technology companies, have received recruitment email/etc. from many more, despite going to a university most haven't heard of. Silicon Valley is much more meritocratic than Wall Street: if you can't pass a coding interview, the name on your diploma will not help you. A name on your diploma might make it easier to get interviews lined up as a student, but undergraduate research, open source contributions, referrals from other employees, are much more useful for that purpose. That's not to say SV is without its own brand of homogeneity: ironically, whenever I am on Stanford campus, I am amazed at how much more diverse it is compared to the rest of Palo Alto.

Karunamon 14y ago

Elite schools tend to have elite people. Funny how that works.

rhizome 14y ago
Stanford is not an elite school, it's a status school with what many say is a huge amount of grade-inflation. Elite schools are ones like RPI, Bard, various sports schools (Michigan/Okla, UNC, etc.), and so on. The only "elite" quality Stanford has is its location and the presence of a few celebrities.

Cyranix 14y ago

So... the fact that Google also has some Stanford background doesn't seem pertinent to you? What an unusual knee-jerk reaction.

jpeterson 14y ago
Yes, it is pertinent. But that doesn't change the fact that it's a really dumb way to evaluate the "talent" of a person or company.

hack_edu 14y ago

Unfortunately tons of firms put a huge value in this. Try getting a high level rockstar-ninja-badass (lol) engineer job, especially at a bay area startup, without some sort of pedigree from a named institution. Its bullshit, but reality. Google used to, might still, place a degree from a top-tier institution as the first requirement in upper level job postings.

strlen 14y ago
> Unfortunately tons of firms put a huge value in this. Try getting a high level rockstar-ninja-badass (lol) engineer job, especially at a bay area startup, without some sort of pedigree from a named institution. Its bullshit, but reality. I've worked at or (or received employment offers from) quite a few "name brand" Bay Area technology companies, have received recruitment email/etc. from many more, despite going to a university most haven't heard of. Silicon Valley is much more meritocratic than Wall Street: if you can't pass a coding interview, the name on your diploma will not help you. A name on your diploma might make it easier to get interviews lined up as a student, but undergraduate research, open source contributions, referrals from other employees, are much more useful for that purpose. That's not to say SV is without its own brand of homogeneity: ironically, whenever I am on Stanford campus, I am amazed at how much more diverse it is compared to the rest of Palo Alto.