Posted on 05/29/2013 9:13:41 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Tom Friedman's latest column in The New York Times argues that employers don't care if you went to Yale:
Since jobs are evolving so quickly, with so many new tools, a bachelor’s degree is no longer considered an adequate proxy by employers for your ability to do a particular job — and, therefore, be hired. So, more employers are designing their own tests to measure applicants’ skills. And they increasingly don’t care how those skills were acquired: home schooling, an online university, a massive open online course, or Yale. They just want to know one thing: Can you add value?
Instead, Friedman argues, employers are turning to meritocratic recruiting methods, like the recruiting startup created by his daughter's former roommate at ...Yale.
People are taking issue with the column for a few reasons, including how it serves as a "PR piece for a company run by his daughter's Yale buddies" according to one commenter at Hacker News.
No one is more upset, however, than one Yale student who argues at Hacker News that Yale students really are better than everyone else. Here's why:
Have people considered that "credentials and connections" are actually a valuable signaling mechanism? Connections (in the broadest sense of the word) indicate that a candidate is able to form strong personal relationships.
People are not robots, and this ability goes a long way in the workforce. If you are hiring someone, you know you're going to spend the majority of your waking time with that person for the foreseeable future. So any kind of signal that this will prove a positive use of your time is a valuable one.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Sounds like a guy that’s just got bit in the ass by a cost-benefit analysis. He’s hoping he didn’t spend $100K on his bachelor’s degree when he could’ve gotten the same thing for $20K elsewhere.
Employers like people that understand cost-benefit. In bachelor’s degrees, cost matters.
SnakeDoc
Actually, We Yale Grads Really Are Better Than Other People
___________________________________________________________________
THIS is why I am damn tired of Ivy leaguers running out country.
Only a fool would vote for any of them .
Absolutely. I see a Yale degree on a resume and it signals a whole host of future problems with an attitude of entitlement, salary expectations, and very probably Socialist political views. The Yale degree is thus a valuable signal that I should look elsewhere. :)
Prostitutes have lots of connections, too.
Really? From the Yale Admissions website:
The total Cost of Attendance for attending Yale in 2012-2013 is $58,600, which includes tuition ($42,300), room ($7,150), board ($5,850), and books and personal expenses ($3,300).
That's just short of sixty grand worth of "nonexistent". I'm guessing the author of the letter isn't majoring in Business. Or Economics. Or Mathematics, or Engineering, or any other field where hiring a complete fool might be dangerous.
this sense of entitlement will make for a very long, disappointing life
Another perpetual adolescent. A self centered sophomore, in the classic sense.
Can't distinguish opinion from reality.
Some Yale grads are better than most other people. But the same can be said of many other grads from institutions noteworthy and modest.
The standard of that judgment is how others view you. One of the universal yardsticks of a "better" person is modesty, and by that measure the good human being always stands out, and the loudmouths fail.
But we live in a society of contradictions and illusion.
Members of Congress and bureaucrats feel the same way. Until hubris sets in. Then many become prison fodder, or mental institution residents, alcoholics, druggists or all three.
College tuition bubble is gonna burst. The “big” schools aren’t worth the money and people are catching on.
its access...
its the beautiful people...
that's how they get their acting roles/ceo jobs, etc....
work is work...I don't think these people know real work...
Grandmother took care of those dreary financial matters....
Well, Yale has 18 Nobel laureates among its alum.
That sounds impressive until you consider that City College of New York has 9. It’s not where you took calculus 101—it’s what you do with that knowledge.
I would take all this with a grain of salt. Almost everything Friedman has ever written turned out to be nonsense.
RE: Well, Yale has 18 Nobel laureates among its alum.
Obama, Gore, Carter, Yaser Arafat, Paul Krugman, Kofi Anand were all Nobel Laureates.
That’s supposed to be impressive?
Which is a better indicator of value? Four years at Yale or four years in the Marines? Four years at State U or four years in the Navy maintaining a nuclear cruiser?
“The Yale degree is thus a valuable signal that I should look elsewhere. :) “
I don’t hire Ivy Leaguers. Connections? They mean daddy’s connections.
I Want hungry kids with a little bit of experience and a lot of heart that will go through walls to get the job done. Not some kid who thinks he is entitled to the job because he can read a text book better then another kid.
Nobel is not exactly an ‘unbiased’ reference anymore
Since they gave both AlGore and Obama a prize for essentially nothing except PC crapola
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