Ask HN: Is it possible for non-Ivy grads to land a job with a top company? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is it possible for non-Ivy grads to land a job with a top company?

1 pointMorningDewz4 comments

Well the question is simple but first a little b-info about me:

I went to Cal state school and graduated with 3.73/4.0 GPA.

I did three internships with 3 fortune 100 companies (non of them in technology) and for the past 2 months I've been trying to land a job with a big-tech company to no avail.

I have the experience but it seems i don't fit the mold because I didn't go to Stanford, Berkley or some other "Famed" school which apparently make me a second-class job candidate.

I should add that I didn't even get an interview with any of the companies that I applied to.

So now my question for those no-name school grads is how did you do it?

Should I just take up on my offers from other companies and forget the valley?

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I worked as a coder for six years with no degree after dropping out of physics at UCSC. While it was a contract I did work at apple. A couple years after I finally did graduate from ucsc I was a "white badge" senior engineer at apple.

A friend who has an english degree from Cal State Northridge is one of Intuit's top marketing people.

the notion that a Stanford or Berkely degree makes on a better engineer is laughable however yes it is a common misconception.

"the notion that a Stanford or Berkely degree makes on a better engineer is laughable"

True. Similarly, the notion that the only companies worth working for are the "top companies" (consumer-facing companies that all your friends have heard of, like Apple or Facebook or Uber) is also laughable.

Just as there are great software engineers graduating from obscure schools, there are great engineers working on interesting stuff in companies you've never heard of. It pays to broaden your horizons when looking for a job. Also, there are a lot of interesting problems in CS that have nothing to do with developing web or phone apps.

"Consumer-facing companies".

An ex-girlfriend of mine is an NSA cryptologist. I don't have a clue what she actually does during her workday. I only know where she works because she committed the grievous error of listing her work address on our alumni website.

Maybe the problem definition can be changed a bit. Instead of asking "am I good enough to work for a top company?" you can ask "how can I create a business where smart people compete to get into?"

I highly recommend "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert T. Kiyosaki (Author)

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