Comment by jpau | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jpau | Hacker News Reader

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This struck a little too close to home. I'm quite educated, but formally "only" to a bachelor degree from a not-very-prestigious (but good!) university.

This lack of signal is causing me problems - not only in career progression, but with my actual job! Stakeholders will occasionally look me up online and express their concern with superiors that I'm not from a Go8 university (Australian Ivy League equivalent) and that my formal education is underwhelming.

It's gotten to the point where my employer is considering (and is likely to) enrolling me in the nearest Go8 and giving paid time off from work to attend part time. They'll also pay for the degree.

And the weirdest part yet - the subjects closely correspond to my undergraduate subjects. This isn't an exercise in improving myself - this is solely to act as a signal.

Under this arrangement, I'm clearly the one that benefits. It costs me little in time, and no money. But the whole thing makes no sense. Surely we can create a better signal.

Have you just started working or something?

As a grad of a Go8 uni and someone who has worked a couple of decades, I wouldn't worry about this signal stuff. If you want to improve yourself you can do study but it doesn't mean as much to employment as you think.

Maybe in a government job you have a lot of BS from higher up idiots but not in private industry. A year of relevant full time work is like double the value of a year of study when we are evaluating job applicants IMO.

Eh. I got my undergrad at a second-tier university and my MSc at a top-tier one. There's definitely been a perceptible difference in how people treat me.

Definitely an underappreciated part of having a prestigious degree(s). I've written about it elsewhere with regards to having no degree vs having one, but it applies to MS vs BS and standard state school vs top-tier just as well.

It's another form of social proof, and it affects not just whether or not you get hired, but how people view you, speak to you, and whether / how much they listen to or consider your opinion. Of course, many people don't give degrees a second thought, but for every one of those, there are plenty who do.

Did you work a year full time in a relevant field before you did your masters?

I am saying I would rather employee someone who had worked for a year in my field than someone who had done a Masters straight after their Bachelors.

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