undefined | Better HN

0 pointsdisgruntledphd26y ago0 comments

One of my previous bosses (at a large tech company) moved over to the US and was asked to hire 9-10 people in a quarter.

Everyone said it was impossible.

She went to LinkedIn, found people with the right skills (strong data and ability to communicate), and had a massive fight with HR because none of the candidates came from "top" schools.

She won the argument, and all of the hired candidates did a great job.

People (especially US people for some reason) seem overly obsessed with the university someone attended, when it doesn't seem to be that predictive of workplace success.

0 comments

14 comments · 8 top-level

namdnay6y ago· 2 in thread

> especially US people

definitely not. french companies actually have engineering salary tables depending on your age and university

hunterwerlla6y ago

That sounds interesting, is there an english source to read about that?

namdnay6y ago

I can’t find anything concrete, each company does it internally. There are some articles where they publish the starting salary based on your university’s “rank”. Try google translate on this: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.lexpress.fr/emploi/les-atou...

It discusses how there are 6 ranks for business schools, and your salary for the first N years will be based on that. Same for engineering. It’s funny that one of the companies is proud to declare that they can move salaries by “up to 5%!!!” based on the candidate themselves (whereas the school can make a 20-30% difference...)

1 more reply

deepGem6y ago· 2 in thread

The university obsession is not unique to US. It's true in India as well. If you are not from the elite institutions, you won't get past any hiring scanners of top tech companies. You'll still get a job, not the best paying one though.

cies6y ago

It's common to all developing nations, and the US (which is both a developing nation and a developed nation in one).

ativzzz6y ago

It's common to all nations, period.

2 more replies

ChuckNorris896y ago· 1 in thread

>(especially US people for some reason) seem overly obsessed with the university someone attended

That happens literally everywhere, especially at big companies that make easy money. The elites don't like sharing the pie with the great unwashed.

disgruntledphd2OP6y ago

I dunno man, I was really surprised by the behaviours I saw; maybe I have been particularly fortunate in my career but it definitely seemed to me like it was worse in the US.

Perhaps it's bad in other places too. I personally think it's idiotic, as the point of interviewing is to find great candidates, and I have never felt like the University they attended was a particularly good predictor of that.

technicalbard6y ago· 1 in thread

This is curious given there are well documented findings that which school you attended doesn't correlate to actual success. This is true in Engineering and Law. The problem, particularly in the US, is that the skills that are tested by the standardized tests (SAT, LSAT) are NOT the skills that make someone good at the job that comes out at the end.

concordDance6y ago

That's surprising.

Can I have a citation?

dmos626y ago

I don't presume to know what that depends on, but wherever you go, in my experience, there seems to be a mix of job opportunities that are diploma-centric and skill-centric. What's more, the people I'm interested working with are generally in the latter category. So it's somewhat ironic, but the whole me-not-having-a-top-school-diploma thing works to my advantage by inadvertantly pinpointing the interesting opportunities.

mlboss6y ago

US is so much better than India. Indian companies openly write in job description that only people with education in premier institutes apply.

tikiman1636y ago

That entirely depends on the company. The US is nearly the size of Europe, each state is roughly equivalent to a different country. How people think and behave vary vastly.

jtdev6y ago

The elite don’t like plebs breaking into their clubs.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse