Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 11:00:45 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: wwong@wiley.csusb.edu (William Wong) Cc: wes@xmission.com, terry@lambert.org, chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Laws of Physics (was Re: SCSI A/V drives) Message-ID: <199611291800.LAA02434@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <199611290620.WAA08983@wiley.csusb.edu> from "William Wong" at Nov 28, 96 10:20:49 pm
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> I agree with you 100 percent except for the part of my confusing those > "states". I don't remember stating that having a degree in something related > to "actually knowing something". Believe me, I have experienced enough to > know just exactly where you are coming from. The reason I'm going for so many > degrees is for that marketing advantage (yech!). It's very unfortunate that > so many companies are looking for degrees rather than of abilities. Actually, Wes and I have a mutual friend who has degrees in psychology, mathematics, and computer science. A degree is less important to marketability than interviewing well. Another mutual friend of Wes and I claims that a degree is a latter day union card. Since he is a PhD who has been teaching physics (and then computer science) for decades, I tend to believe him. He is the person who hands out the union cards, after all. So in order of "importance" for marketability: 1) Ability to get an interview. 2) Ability to sell yourself in an interview. 3) Ability to do what you claimed you could so that you keep the job. Item #3 is the reason you look at job history when hiring someone; if they have a lot of short duration jobs, it's likely they meet items #1 and #2, but fall down afterwards. A degree can be useful if you go through an HR department to get hired; one of the things HR departments do is pick some arbitrary measure of merit, and throw all the resumes/applications not meeting that measure into the trash. Sometimes a degree is is used as that measure. Sometimes, it's experience. Sometimes, it's how well your resume is written. Sometimes, it's spelling. On the other hand, in my entire employment history I have only gone in for a job through an HR department once, and that was applying to a company that answered 800 number calls. I ended up not working for them because they wanted me to sign over invention rights while I was answering their phones; kind of a silly requirement for employment for a high school student. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.
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