Comment by sph

11 hours ago

Hopefully so that people like me, that dropped out of high school yet have had a successful career as a self-taught engineer, have a chance. [1]

Just kidding, my resumes are sent to /dev/null like everybody else’s.

——

1: In fact, I will be controversial and say that self-taught engineers tend to be the strongest in their own particular niche, because they are powered by sheer desire to learn and improve. I am routinely appalled by how many people go on forums to ask how to learn a new thing, completely unable to self-direct their learning. I blame the modern school system.

6 comments

sph

Reply
kailpa1  11 hours ago

I'm a self-taught programmer as well, who dropped out of university, and these factors being omitted would benefit me as well, but I feel like good grades and a good university are still indicators of someone being or is capable of becoming a good programmer.

This system would drop a Harvard top graduate for someone having a year of experience in some outsourcing firm.

  • Schiendelman  8 hours ago

    Unfortunately, graduating from Harvard is a very good predictor of whether your parents were wealthy, and also that you are less likely to be black.

    I worked for a very large job board for the last six years, it's the one you're thinking of. What we found is that the outcomes of paying attention to what school you went to are almost entirely discriminatory, and not predictors of success.

  • goosejuice  10 hours ago

    > I feel like good grades and a good university are still indicators of someone being or is capable of becoming a good programmer.

    Really depends on the program. In my undergrad program there were some very smart CS students who got great grades that really struggled with the programming. Smart and capable people can be bad at programming and lack many qualities that make for a good hire.

    • kailpa1  8 hours ago

      Sure, but isn't this kind of person the exception? I feel like most of the time good grades mean good programming skills

  • sph  11 hours ago

    I started in an outsourcing firm (body rental actually) but I definitely get your point. Maybe they optimize for real world experience, or rather, how one is used to workplace politics and logistics. The top grad will have higher expectations, and all they want is a cog for the Machine.