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Comment by sparky_z | Hacker News Reader

"I will say that there's definitely a hazing culture across all professions in America that's completely unnecessary and inappropriate."

I'm a structural engineer. I don't recall any sort of hazing culture, or even a single instance of hazing.

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Where did you do your internship, and what were you asked to do there? How many hours did you work and study while in school? Were you expected to work much longer hours as a junior employee to "work your way up the ranks?

I think these are the sorts of elements of a hazing culture that GP is discussing. Not necessarily fraternity-prank style hazing.

Yes, this is the type of hazing I am referring to. Call it "institutionalized hazing" rather than fraternity style hazing. The bar exam for lawyers is one good example of hazing. Most law grads who apply themselves will pass, it's just a form of hazing for new entrants. Other countries with common law have just as good, if not better, bars and they do not have postgraduate law degrees and bar exams to become admitted. I don't buy the "it reduces supply" either, because of the high pass rates, but even if it was used for this, it would simply be injustice. If you want to filter people out, do it before they waste three years and $150,000.

What is your plan to replace these to filter out or vet people prior to learning the knowledge required to sufficiently do the jobs they trained their minds to do during those years?

I am curious, also, to these other countries that have better bars, can you cite some countries and studies that back up these allegations?

If you call the bar hazing, then isn't pretty much any exam you've ever taken hazing?

Actually, I didn't personally encounter anything like that, but I now have a better idea of what you meant and agree it's not unheard of.

Does 12 months doing nothing but anchor-bolts count? That's what my boss had me do. I practically had ACI 318 Appendix D memorized.

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