How many of y’all have ever worked with someone who never went to college?
Most of my jobs. Food prep, cashier, gas station attendant, grocery bagger. Didn't start working "civilized" jobs until fairly recently and am still sort of out of place there despite having spent more time in college than almost anyone.
So many of my favorite engineering and design collaborators did not go to college, including my favorite two.
Did the full path (have a PhD) and I’m indifferent if my kids attend. I’m pushing them for a gap year or working first or just do something else than sit in a seat and listen to a person talk. Got in-laws in Australia so they might do the work-travel visa there
Staff engineer at my last startup. Super smart and hardworking guy. He did however had this insane urge to always be proving that he was a hardcore engineer and that made him kind of toxic.
A disproportionate number of the most capable people I know fall into this category
Old friend and former coworker is an accomplished software engineer who dropped out of HS and taught himself.
Many. The later you get in your career, it matters even less. You realize the instincts you develop in early adulthood are more than enough to succeed. And ofc the learning never stops, etc. IMO, the strongest bull case for IRL college is the compounding value of the (personal + professional) network you build there
Quite a few. I respect their team spirit, grit and willingness to get hands dirty
Quite a few. I think college is generally optional for dev / design folks if they have a body of work I can review instead. Product / BizOps / Marketing I look more for college credentials for an indication of commitment and work ethic. Not perfect signals but they are parameters.
honestly a lot of the time you cant even tell. especially in crypto with so many ways to learn countless hard & specialized skills. i usually dont ask/care unless someone wants to tall about it tbh. so many more interesting aspects of people other than their formal education 🤙
🔹 juice shop: I worked in admin office, coworkers in production + retail 🔹govt marketing: I worked as marketer, colleague was a former soldier turned graphic designer 🔹 VC: I worked as copywriter, GP was high school only
Several people that I admire have not attended college.
Our CTO attended state school and dropped freshman year. Would say he’s stronger than most anybody from the Waterloo or MIT camp we interviewed
I’ve dropped out after a first few weeks because it was boring as hell and started coding. After years of successful career, enrolled back to a remote uni “just in case”.
I’m a college dropout. I’ve worked with people who graduated, people who dropped or never went. Higher ed gives some people the env or connections they need to grow into their career, some people are autodidacts or just don’t gel with academia, but I’ve seen zero correlation of either with their capabilities.
They are usually wicked smart . I usually assume they are an order of magnitude smarter than someone who is at the same place with a degree
At lbry we averaged one college degree per person because half of us had 2 and half had none.
Several. And few who’ve attended college but never finished. Usually the most effective people with the best work ethic.
Several of the best engineers I worked with never went to college. Self taught, wicked smart, scrappy thinkers. Taught me as a manager to evaluate the intellect/fit, not the resume…
I didn’t go for the things I do everyday, nor did I even complete film school.
Quite common in 🇨🇭 , as we have "Lehre" whereby people enter jobs from Highschool to learn in the job (+ continuing job specific schooling) rather than going to study. So, yes 😄
I have delivered many crucial hydraulic repairs and retrofits on seagoing vessels and ships for IOC’s and maritime companies solely with technicians and teams who never went to college.
🙋🏻♂️imo, graduating from college merely means that a person has the ability to learn and absorb knowledge in a supervised, guided, and moderately stressful environment. And of course, the niche knowledge acquired through attending the courses, where one should be able to be acquired from the internet today