On the positive side, no one can stop you from making lots of money using the internet. And if you have something that really takes off, those same investors will line up at your door.
Right, but it's still discouraging to be forever branded a "2nd tier engineer/human/etc" because of where I went to school (unless I get into a good grad school).
5 years into your career no-one normal cares where you went to school.
This is very specifically the case in Silicon Valley, the insular center of the world, and not the case elsewhere. Most companies I've interviewed at couldn't care less about where I went to school as long as I could build their stuff.
It should be encouraging because you're being told the truth and being spoken to like an adult for once in your life.
You know, fair point. Far too many people spread the meme that school doesn't matter.
Naw - places that hire like that are myopic are shitty and doomed, so you don't want to work there anyway. If you're a good coder and not a complete dick, you can build a nice career for yourself.
Yup, no doubt. There are lots of good areas for tech that aren't elitist like this, but compensation wise I don't think any can touch the top 3 (Seattle, NYC, SFO). That's just what I've heard ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, I don't claim to know much.