How much does the College/University attended weigh in on your hiring process?

[Anonymous]

My company is based in Illinois. I work remote. Most of my team, including the highest performers, graduated from small Midwest schools that I have never heard of. I don’t care about school as much as soft skills and writing ability. I hire people in marketing and product management. I can weed out pretty well during the interview.

My husband recently hired 6 entry mechanical engineers. 4 of them graduated from Penn State where he is an alumni. 2 are from Maryland, 1 from Pitt. All starting at 105k with bonus. His company prefers state school graduates.

[Anonymous]

In hiring for our investment firm we don’t pay much attention to the college attended. It’s become clear in the last 10 or 15 years that cost is a huge factor for most students in selecting where to attend. Great candidates can be found at many schools.

[Anonymous]

Interesting how this diverges from a similar discussion in the College forum where at least one PP specifically stated how any application from a geographically undesirable university (e.g., the South) would immediately get thrown in the trash and multiple others indicated something very similar.

[Anonymous]

Not at all. We don't technically require a college degree at all for many positions, though I don't think we actually have any staff without degrees at the moment. What matters more is which member of congress or committee you staffed. Fluency in the subject matter for the role, whether it's monetary policy or new media strategy, is often the deciding factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In tech...it does not matter at all. They are looking for skills and they will also do a lot of testing and tests and watch your body language etc before hiring you.

The pipeline is certainly the internships for the first job.

Which is annoying. My 19/20 year old has been getting all sorts of very lucrative engineering internships at various Fortune 500 companies. But not in their particular passion, which in fairness, is extremely competitive. Pretty much the most competitive field there is for engineers.

Do you just settle for the junior year internships and the offers that comes with it?

They are 20/21 at this point.

It seems far too young to give up on bigger dreams.

Well aware that there are worse problems to have. But this junior year internship pipeline seems nuts at this age point. Do you not get a chance to apply when you graduate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In tech...it does not matter at all. They are looking for skills and they will also do a lot of testing and tests and watch your body language etc before hiring you.

The pipeline is certainly the internships for the first job.

Which is annoying. My 19/20 year old has been getting all sorts of very lucrative engineering internships at various Fortune 500 companies. But not in their particular passion, which in fairness, is extremely competitive. Pretty much the most competitive field there is for engineers.

Do you just settle for the junior year internships and the offers that comes with it?

They are 20/21 at this point.

It seems far too young to give up on bigger dreams.

Well aware that there are worse problems to have. But this junior year internship pipeline seems nuts at this age point. Do you not get a chance to apply when you graduate?

Hilarious that you and they think you start in your dream job. wtf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:for established professionals it's less about absolute ranking or desirability and more about degree mill vs not.

degree mill helps check the box if a degree is mandatory for a position; but it definitely doesn't add to a resume, and can sometimes be a hurdle to overcome.

for fresh grads, a lot of recruitment happens at the college itself; there are definitely opportunity pipelines that exist at the more prestigious programs that are not available to the bulk of recent grads.

I know what you mean, and I’ve seen some great people in that first category, but otherwise the majority are people I’d pass over. I tend to have a serious dose of skepticism for the established professional+diploma mill.

yup. i tend to default to more flexibility for veterans, who frequently were trying to get a degree while employed full-time and also are heavily marketed to, to their disadvantage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In accounting, as long as the school is accredited it really doesn’t matter. Most people who I work with went to state schools, Florida, Maryland, VT, JMU, Georgia

Ever notice that the Elijah Watt Sells award winners (highest CPA exam scores) are often from no-name schools. Accounting is one if the most egalitarian professions out there. Any finance bro field is a different story. They look for rich kids schools (BC, Richmond, etc.).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In tech...it does not matter at all. They are looking for skills and they will also do a lot of testing and tests and watch your body language etc before hiring you.

The pipeline is certainly the internships for the first job.

Which is annoying. My 19/20 year old has been getting all sorts of very lucrative engineering internships at various Fortune 500 companies. But not in their particular passion, which in fairness, is extremely competitive. Pretty much the most competitive field there is for engineers.

Do you just settle for the junior year internships and the offers that comes with it?

They are 20/21 at this point.

It seems far too young to give up on bigger dreams.

Well aware that there are worse problems to have. But this junior year internship pipeline seems nuts at this age point. Do you not get a chance to apply when you graduate?

Hilarious that you and they think you start in your dream job. wtf

+1 lol.. very few of us even at 50 are in our "dream job".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In accounting, as long as the school is accredited it really doesn’t matter. Most people who I work with went to state schools, Florida, Maryland, VT, JMU, Georgia

Ever notice that the Elijah Watt Sells award winners (highest CPA exam scores) are often from no-name schools. Accounting is one if the most egalitarian professions out there. Any finance bro field is a different story. They look for rich kids schools (BC, Richmond, etc.).

Because accounting is "technical" know how, whereas finance bro fields are all about schmoozing and who you know.

[Anonymous]

I hire STEM. For engineers, I really don't care at all ABET means there is less difference between most engineering programs than between most humanities programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In accounting, as long as the school is accredited it really doesn’t matter. Most people who I work with went to state schools, Florida, Maryland, VT, JMU, Georgia

Ever notice that the Elijah Watt Sells award winners (highest CPA exam scores) are often from no-name schools. Accounting is one if the most egalitarian professions out there. Any finance bro field is a different story. They look for rich kids schools (BC, Richmond, etc.).

Because accounting is "technical" know how, whereas finance bro fields are all about schmoozing and who you know.

If you're smart enough to get the highest CPA exam score, and you're at an elite college, you're not becoming an accountant. You may still be in some other technical field.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends on the profession.

In law, law school attended is a good proxy for intelligence (not necessarily competence, etc.), because the primary factor in admissions is the LSAT, an extremely hard standardized test.

What about all the prestigious schools that went test optional the past 5 years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on the profession.

In law, law school attended is a good proxy for intelligence (not necessarily competence, etc.), because the primary factor in admissions is the LSAT, an extremely hard standardized test.

IDK . . . there are a lot of people who choose law school (and other graduate programs) based on a location that works for where they are in their lives.

That is part of the self selecting process. Someone who settles for middling tier despite intelligence or competence is signaling other priorities (i.e. what works for their lives) than attaining professional heights and goals outside of him/herself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It depends on the profession.

In law, law school attended is a good proxy for intelligence (not necessarily competence, etc.), because the primary factor in admissions is the LSAT, an extremely hard standardized test.

What about all the prestigious schools that went test optional the past 5 years?

What law schools went test optional?