Link to Graham's article: http://paulgraham.com/colleges.html
* My resume for his side of the story He defends that people cannot be measured by the college/company they attend/work and so, they're usually hired by human resources people that tend to choose some student/worker over the other just because it feels safe for the recruiter. Just like in many companies nowadays, where people tend to purchase some software or service from companies that give them more guaranties, which is called the no risk management. We see this more in portuguese public administration and in some large privately held companies. But, his experience tells him that the "he came from a good college or school, so he should be smart" is completely wrong. This is misusage of the society itself. We tend to approve someone by his background curricula and not by his currently or showed expertise. * My side of the story Last year, for ITIJ, I've recruited for development (area that I was managing) and system administration positions. For the first one I've got the help of ITIJ CIO - Mário Valente, but for the sysadmin I've acted more like a consultant. Also, I've interviewed a couple more for Windows Sysadmin in the private sector. In ITIJ, I've laid my eyes in many CV's that I stop counting. For the positions, a degree was needed, so every CV had come from some great portuguese schools, IST, ISEL, FCT, FCTUN, FEUP, etc. But for the more great school that people come, the more wrong we were about them. It felt like the students are just plain stupid and cannot act or thing strait. They've failed simple questions, some technical other rather more mental - I usually ask some logic and 'tricky' questions about clocks. Of course there were some exceptions, the ones that you see the CV and think, "oh boy, this guy is useless" and on the interview he's plain forward and tries (actually the ones that came from high colleges didn't) to answer the questions. So, we've been is some awkward positions, where we had to rank for their CV (with full degrees, MBA's, doctorates, etc) and their work experience based on job year's, while the interview only takes up to 50% of the full analysis, the 'paper' (CV) takes and deliberate acts as Paul Grahams describes - "overestimating people who'd been to elite colleges". On the private sector, I've just seen the opposite, because a degree was a plus not a condition, so I interviewed some smart guys with an attitude, that know what they're doing. To summarize; a degree is definitely not everything when you hire people. In 7Syntax, we think that the degree shows us that the people can be smart, but only with some hands on (code, technology, etc) and with some interaction with then, we can evaluate the person, focusing in that really matters; what they've made. Also we think that the interview alike system, around the meeting table, acting as 'gods', doesn't motives people and only stress them more, so we'll interview them on their lunch hour, around a decent meal, with much less stress. _______________________________________________ tce mailing list tce@lists.paradigma.pt http://lists.paradigma.pt/mailman/listinfo/tce
