[Novalug] [OT] The farce of the cost of college -- WAS: Diversity

Roy Wilson roywilson1963@gmail.com
Tue Jun 9 10:53:02 EDT 2015


On Tue, Jun 9, 2015 at 10:33 AM, Peter Larsen via Novalug <
novalug@firemountain.net> wrote:

> > Caveat on the name recognition...  when I got out of school, the degrees
> > had more meaning to me and prospective employers than now, simply because
> > other than the math skills, the rest of what I learned (mech eng) is so
> far
> > out of date to be worse than useless.  I suspect that holds true for any
> > fast-moving tech or medical field.
>
> I'm not sure how any institution can teach specific topics of skills if
> the idea is that what you learned 30 years ago would be current today.
> To me, higher institutions should teach you how to stay current.
>

Not what I meant, sorry if I wasn't clear.

  I was speaking to name recognition of schools as HR (still haven't got
used to not calling that Personnel) "sees" it on a job application.

  For a tech position, they see "MIT" or "CalTech" and that candidate moves
to the top of the pile.

  But if that degree was from 20+ years ago, and the applicant hasn't been
working in the field to stay current, the name recognition is a false flag.

  The same goes for "official" certifications.  I remember when "But all
our other burger flippers already HAVE their CNE" wasn't a joke.

  Hey, if anyone wants to set up a Netware or Banyan Vines network, I'm
your guy. If you want something that doesn't come on 360K floppies, you
should probably talk to some of the other people here....

  I'm not advocating snobbery or reverse-snobbery about "name" schools,
just that while getting a degree from such a known school can help you, if
you're on the other end of the hiring table you need to look a bit deeper.

  Also, as I mentioned, name recognition doesn't always mean "better
educated".  I used Harvard Law as an example - everyone recognizes it and
the association is "good".  Yeah, it is.  But there are *much* better law
schools out there, and both applicants and HR should be aware of that.

  The caveat to the caveat is if you are willing to (or can) tap the Old
Boy's Network.  Sometimes that school ring means more than the degree or
actual ability.  IMO, that's very, very bad, but it exists.



More information about the Novalug mailing list