Yes, they're highly overblown - I just made it through the hiring meatgrinder this week and I have a non-CS degree from a tiny liberal arts college. It was a no

Yes, they're highly overblown - I just made it through the hiring meatgrinder this week and I have a non-CS degree from a tiny liberal arts college. It was a nonissue. Plus, two years ago, they hired me as an intern after reading my resume and two phone screens. Now, that all said, I'm fairly active in OSS, but that's almost all of my "formal" training and/or experience in CS and SW Engineering. The fact of the matter is that if you can get through the interview questions and appear to "fit" the culture, you probably stand a decent chance. Top tier schools help, but that's probably more a fact of the school having a big name and the brand of the school being more prized. Otherwise, they never would have even looked at me as an intern, much less an actual hire.