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Comment by disgruntledphd2 | Hacker News Reader

> This is one of the very few places I think big tech in the US has done a great job. Coding interviews can be justifiably critiqued in many ways, but it's still a much better system than raw credentialization.

Just so we're clear, the coding tests are in addition to credentialisation. I'll never forget when I worked at Big Tech (from Ireland) and I would constantly hear recruiters talk about the OK school list (basically the Ivy league). Additionally, I remember having to check the University a candidate had attended before she had an interview with one of our directors.

He was fine with her, because she had gone to Oxford. Honestly, I'm surprised that I was able to get hired there given all this nonsense.

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My experience with big tech has been the polar opposite - nobody has ever cared and I've never tried to hide it either. Which one was it if you don't mind me asking?

I'm a drop out (didn't finish BSc) from a no name Northern European university and I've worked at or gotten offers from:

- Meta

- Amazon

- Google

- Microsoft

- Uber

- xAI

+ some unicorns that compete with FAANG+ locally.

I didn't include some others that have reached out for interviews which I declined at the time. The lack of a degree has literally never come up for me.

It was Meta but twas a long time ago, when they were known as Facebook.

It seems to be a US role thing in my experience.

Hiring is still a pretty non-uniform thing despite attempts to make it less so - I'm sure there are some teams and orgs at all these large companies that do it well, and some that do it les well. I think it is pretty well accepted that university brand is not a good signal, but it is an easy signal and if the folks in the hiring process are a bit lazy and pressed for time, a bit overwhelmed by the number of inbound candidates, or don't really know how to evaluate for the role competencies, I think it's a tool that is still reached for today.

In a way, I think the hiring process at second-tier (not FAANG) companies is actually better because you have to "moneyball" a little bit - you know that you're going to lose the most-credentialed people to other companies that can beat you dollar for dollar, so you actually have to think a little more deeply about what a role really needs to find the right person.

Once you have a relevant work history, a degree matters much less. It still does to some employers, however, for whom it's a simple filter on applicants: No degree? Resume into the bin.

It is true, and it is much easier to get that first relevant work experience when you have a big degree. Not impossible without one, just much harder.

If anything, it will get worse. There was a deficit of tech workers, from now on, there will be an excess. Which means that differentiators will be even more important.

The smaller the job market relative to candidates, the more the differentiators are both important and also meaningless to the actual job

We gotta play the game, though.

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