> It's a big club and you won't be in it if you decide to self-study. That's the cold, hard truth.
This almost reads like conspiracy. There’s barely anything like that in reality, and the kind of network people finds at school is usually extremely weak. Otherwise, job boards wouldn’t exist.
I highly dispute this. Networks in college are absolutely a thing and absolutely advantageous. In my experience, the network didn't come from just sitting in class, but from extracurricular competition engineering/cs teams. Competition teams certainly helped many people get their first jobs through friends referring each other or elevated exposure to employers. In fact, recruiters would often have separate hiring events for the competition teams and then have the standard college hiring event. There's also an intangible effect from being surrounded by other highly motivated and mission driven students that you gain in these environments. I am sure there is a way to get involved in similar teams outside of college, but a well situated college significantly lowers the barrier to joining these teams and almost creates a funnel for it should you choose to spend your spare time in such as team.
>There's also an intangible effect from being surrounded by other highly motivated and mission driven students that you gain in these environments.
I think that is absolutely true. But other than one thing (which was part of a class and was really great even if we didn't do well), didn't really do competition teams in any formal way other than some class groups. Certainly nothing involving separate hiring events.
Both your points do absolutely not mirror my experience. In traditional career paths (established company) a diploma helps a lot -- for some roles you won't even be considered otherwise.
And your take on networks being useless is also strange. I work closely with people who have large and well-maintained networks, and the value they produce because of that is insane.
> Both your points do absolutely not mirror my experience. In traditional career paths (established company) a diploma helps a lot -- for some roles you won't even be considered otherwise.
For a first job? Maybe.
I don’t have one and it’s barely been a talking point back when I interviewed, regardless of company size.
It depends on the school. I knew a few younger guys from Stanford and whatnot who were really into the idea of preferring hiring people from particular schools if not their own.
This almost reads like conspiracy. There’s barely anything like that in reality, and the kind of network people finds at school is usually extremely weak. Otherwise, job boards wouldn’t exist.