There are some coworkers with big name schools like Berkeley, UW, UIUC, UCLA, GT that I see working at FAANG but with a school like that you could walk into any startup or HFT and make double the FAANG salary. I’ve also seen Ivy grads albeit a lower rate than the aforementioned schools. For reference I went to a school called Western Oregon University as I grew up in Oregon and it was affordable. The PE in our org had a cert from Devry during the 2000s. I’ve seen several older devs with degrees from India and never graduated from a US university. TC 360k 4.5 YoE (L6)
Education is overrated tbh
I got a PhD at an Ivy and I work at a FAANG. I have no interest in working myself to death at a HFT or startup for the chance of some extra money. I used to work a 60+ hour per week job. It's not worth it.
For PhD going to Ivy makes some sense. Most regional schools do not offer PhDs at least in STEM. I’m not sure if there are PhD granting schools that are easier to get into. Flagship state schools are cheaper I suppose but limited spots just like Ivy
1. People are sheep they follow trends 2. Some people are reluctant to accept the reality of adult life. A cohort of young peers and a tech ‘campus’ and extend that feeling to college/grad 2.0 3. Not every Ivy grad comes out massively professional. You can still be a small fish in a big pond. Most will say getting into Ivy is harder than being in it. 4. General massive college grad pipelines require less bootlicking/sucking-up. You don’t need to hit up a startup founder and spend a week under their desk. 5. Diversity. Rag all you want, but I know plenty of smart women who do not want to be in sausage fest. They will gladly take jobs that don’t involve being with people who say things “I can’t believe she’s on our team. Could you imagine working with your wife all the time? Wouldn’t that be awful?” or being asked on a weekly basis when they are making a child as if that is all they are good for. 6. Some people still don’t know what they want to do after school especially if you had a household that forced you to go to Ivy or be disowned. 7. Learning. At least on the engineering side, I’ve met applicants from Dartmouth and Cornell that never made an actual system or application. Not every grad is stanford or caltech making a clone of every product on the market in your curriculum or freetime is normal. Probably a million things but not everyone is cut out for startup. They already want to cash in and cruise.
Startup isn't guaranteed returns. Paper money until it isn't, if it gets there. On average folks who join and stay at FAANG make more than startup folks. Also WLB. HFT tends to have less WLB and is much more traditional and office centric. Many of them are located in NYC which doesn't fit what my family wants or needs. At Amazon (and previously google)I can do my 40 and get good ratings at L6 because I'm familiar with the tooling and dedicate time to upskilling and then helping guide the team.
Would you recommend a competitive university to your children? For F500 I would recommend any accredited college and preferably instate/public. For a comfortable life Ivy is not needed nor the prep it takes to get into one. For my graduating class probably less than 5% will get FAANG right off the bat. I’m the only one I knew who did it granted I assume others managed as well, but most students do not understand the interview process. I stopped referring alumni as they did not do well on OAs. But if you know the interview process (in current era it’s STAR + DSA format for new grad) then the university name does not help much
You should always choose the best school you can get into and afford, don't be stupid. Right now university name is the only thing that matters for new grads, bootcamp grads and noname-school grads don't even get a shot at showing their DSA skills in an interview
That's not ivy League. Also, doesn't matter going to ivy League if you pursue a shit degree or you can't code
Even if you pursue an “in demand” degree why would Ivy be preferable to regional college? It only makes sense for career pathway that hires based off school (mainly finance/lawyer). Engineer and Doctor not so much (my sister went to medical school at University of Idaho) and working in a big hospital in King County.
School is overrated
FANG > 99% of startups
"walk into any startup or HFT" Most startups will go bust or otherwise pay less than FAANG. HFTs are way harder to get into than you think and even harder to stay at for longer than 1.5 years. And once you're kicked out of one you're kicked out of the industry.
I don’t mean any startup but the well known ones like Roblox, Stripe, Databricks, OpenAI, Cruise, etc.
The problem is that you usually don't know which startup is which until it's too late. And once it's too late, those startups can be harder to get into than FAANG if it's OpenAI level. But besides, about the other ones you listed: Roblox is a videogame and that work probably doesn't appeal to everyone. Stripe and Data bricks probably have plenty of overlap with FAANG in comp. Cruise has gone to shit since the crash.
- Getting an ivy degree isn't hard - Many that do, they do it to improve their chances of getting into a FAANG anyway - And yes, many from ivy schools get rejected in FAANG interviews all the time cause (Surpriiiiiiiise) they actually donnow what they're talking about - Yes some are great and join startups, but just like any others who did not go to an ivy school. - Going to those startups isn't always an attractive option. Going to a highly ranked school is becoming a lot less relevant in tech. When someone goes "Ooooh you went to HarVaaard 🥰😍😍😍" they're just stupid lol.
1. Curriculum would be similar, but generally getting into Ivy requires scoring top 10-20% and the top even more selective. 2. Agreed there is more on-campus recruiting, but FAANG bar Netflix will take interviews from regional colleges as long as your resume looks proper. 3. Agreed I’ve done several interviews at Amazon and will reject candidates regardless of the school they went to. I do not have Ivy or underdog bias. Granted Ivy grads typically do better as they know how to prep (hence attended an Ivy) If you know how to prep then Ivy or other big name colleges are not worth it unless you are aiming for a niche industry like HFT.
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Because they were always mediocre beings. They only got into Ivy, but they were nothing special. The ones who were something extra - joined HFTs.
These schools require 80%ile SATs. Ivy even more so
Yeah marks doesn’t mean shit. Surprise!