Hacker News Reader

Comment by Larrikin | Hacker News Reader

I've never heard of a CS degree being a negative in any situation outside of someone with a chip on their shoulder about college degrees in general. The person in your example with the degree would still win out in most situations.

The person with experience versus a new graduate degree holder is the actual head to head where the non degree holder has a much better chance.

View on HN

So the person who has proven they can do the work and get promoted in the same career path is less valuable than the CS degree holder (who in this example, did not achieve as much over the same time period) just because they have a degree?

This has never been the case in any org promo committee or hiring committee I have been a part of (100s of candidates).

I would say in most orgs after 3 years of proven track record the degree benefit has fully depreciated. Unless the degree is an advanced degree and related directly to a niche subfield that is the job.

Not saying the degree is a negative just that its signaling factor is dwarfed by experience. n^2 vs cn

Oh interesting I misunderstood your comment. I thought “exact same career trajectory” meant the only difference was the degree. I’m not the user you replied to but I can see how 1) two people with exact same career trajectory but one has a CS degree results in the degree holder being preferred, and 2) two people, one of which has a CS degree with a less accomplished career and the other of which has been promoted/demonstrated greater accomplishments results in the non-degree holder being preferred.

Your example actually made me think of the opposite situation lol.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com