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Comment by throwaway2037 | Hacker News Reader

throwaway2037

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When someone has already demonstrated they can do the work, what additional value do you think them getting a degree will bring to a company?

Sometimes the degree is needed in order for the company to be allowed to pay him over a specific amount/scale.

Any company that does this doesn’t seem worth working for

This rules out a lot of government jobs. I personally finished my bachelors after I was already making 6 figures, but it’s a complex issue.

I seriously dislike degrees as a signaling mechanism. Maybe you just didn’t have parents who could afford to front $100,000 for you to attend college. Maybe you didn’t want to take on student loan debt.

It shouldn’t matter at all if you can get the job done.

If you want to explore immigrating later it’s probably worth having.

This happened to me once about a handful of years ago, and it happened because in spite of actually getting the job on technical merit, they were a funded NGO who's benefactors demanded at least an undergrad to work in the company. True story, it happens.

Seems like a somewhat traditional suggestion with a potentially massive financial and time commitment. Not that it's not something to do, but why do you think that's the move right now, especially since they're clearly established in their career and nobody cares about it after a few years?

Not the GP, but I think the reason is, that right now it's super hard to get a new job, because of so many things, but mostly, because of AI craze and tanking economies. Bridging that time with a degree is not the worst idea, if you can afford it.

Exactly right. Also, since this person works in the United States, it will make it easier to get re-employed because you will have the university degree. I know HN really dislikes the economic/skill signalling around university degrees in the United States, but it hard to avoid/ignore.

I can't see or reply to the original comment since it's been nuked, but I can infer what it was saying.

I actually started studying part-time for a mathematics degree earlier this year, and I don't plan on stopping that now. Having a degree does open doors at more traditional companies and government jobs, and it would also make immigration to another country sometime in the future a lot more straightforward. There are definitely benefits, even though I'm established in my career!

True, I guess it just seemed like an odd suggestion as the first place to go to immediately after getting laid off, but otherwise I find Uni more enjoyable and sometimes more stimulating than work. I've gone back to school on the same context before for the same reasons, but ironically ended up finding every other subject more interesting (not on paper) than continuing with only CS. GIS, Anthro, and History, thankfully the school was relatively free wheeling. Didn't end up finishing before finding another paid gig. Good luck!

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