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Comment by tzs | Hacker News Reader

I ignored a job advertised in the paper once because it said it required a master's in CS. I had a bachelor's in mathematics. The job was for a Unix kernel and system hacker at a company making Unix workstations. This was around 1984, when Unix internals experience was not widespread.

Several months later, a headhunter sent me to interview for that job, which was still open because they hadn't been able to find anyone with the necessary Unix experience before I applied.

I got the job.

They could have had me several months earlier, and without having to pay several thousand dollars to a headhunter, if they had not stuck on that requirement for a master's degree in their ad in the paper.

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I'm pretty convinced that those phrases are there to keep people that aren't qualified from applying.

I've always ignored them and it's never been a problem.

I don't necessarily agree with the practice, but the argument I've heard is that if you only want people with a Bachelor's or higher, you have to say that you want a Master's.

What do you think the reason for that is? That those people without a bachelor's degree will be really discouraged from applying if you state that a master's is required?

Yes, that's my understanding. Virtually all jobs say "Bachelor's required" so the phrase has lost much of its meaning.

Probably because, so often, it really doesn't mean anything. This phrase is usually put there by HR departments; most hiring managers couldn't care less about an applicant's (lack of formal) education if the person can actually do the work, which, in computer science, is a lot of people with no degrees.

Seems like they're not doing too well at their purpose then.

"or equivalent experience" is now a pretty standard addendum to the CS degree requirement.

IMHO that's an implied addendum to all job ad requirements!

That's pretty much a legal requirement since you can't require a degree for programming.

I don't think it is important. the best programmers don't need the degrees to prove that they are programmers.

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