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Comment by gregpilling | Hacker News Reader

I have a manufacturing company (started in 2004), and since 2008 the number of overqualified applicants has been huge. I have hired mechanical engineers as personal assistants, a person with a bachelors of mathematics as a nanny, and hired another mechanical engineer away from Pizza Hut to do CAD work (which does not require a degree, a 2 year community program is fine).

We get unsolicited applications all the time, and the variety of education and backgrounds is large. Who would you hire though? The person with several DUI convictions who just got out of jail, or the engineering graduate who hasn't been able to find work in their field for 2 years? I have had both apply for a low-level warehouse job, at the same time.

It is a tough job market out there.

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If I may ask, if you have two comparatively skilled/driven/smart workers for the same job, would you choose the one with the college degree?

I do think there are a lot of people where college is not a value-add to their skillset, yet it seems like going to college solely for that edge is neccessary

Surely they'd interview and find out whether the paper lies in both cases (arrest record vs. inflated degree). An amazing asset to a company doesn't have to come from college. But it can.

> If I may ask, if you have two comparatively skilled/driven/smart workers for the same job, would you choose the one with the college degree?

Because you have no idea whether they are comparably skilled/driven/smart, especially for relatively entry-level positions, and you can't afford to spend too much time digging to figure it out. You do know that at least one had it together enough to apply for/get into/graduate from college.

That is my wife's argument. She says that a college degree means that you were smart enough to get a college degree.

We interview, and then we do a paid work test. The person comes in a works with several of the staff (the hardest working ones) and after a day we decide if the person is a good fit. In our world a 'good fit' does not mean young white male hacker, but instead means hard worker, understands new process quickly, and cares about detail.

Usually the correct person to hire is obvious. If it is not (if both candidate were mediocre in the work test) then we keep interviewing. The cost in lost time for training a new hire is high, so we want to make sure the choice we make is correct.

So to answer your question directly - we interview, and try to keep an unbiased opinion until after the work test. Then I poll the staff to find out who was better to work with. 99% of the time the staff doesn't know much about the person's education. I definitely would hire someone self-taught without a degree (like myself), and I agree than some people go to college for the wrong reasons.

Out of curiosity... do you have a degree? I wonder if the businesses owner's background has any influence on the decision. "School is a place where former A students teach mostly B students to work for C students"

I do not have a degree. I was an honor roll student who slipped to barely passing grades in my last year. I did not go to university until my 30's, after I married a professor.

So I would have to agree that I fit that saying somewhat, but my C's were more the result of high school rebellion than lack of ability.

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