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Subject:Re: Getting that degree From:Steve Fouts <sfouts -at- ELLISON -dot- SC -dot- TI -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 30 Nov 1993 09:31:48 CST
Vicki Rosenzweig suggests:
|} Speaking of cynical theories, I sometimes suggest that the main
|} reason companies want a college degree isn't even to avoid possible
|} legal difficulties, but because it indicates that a person can
|} put up with a certain amount of nonsense...
[...]
|} I suspect it also indicates a certain amount of docility.
|}
Hoo hoo! You didn't go to the same college I went to! No, the thing that
makes you docile is the realization that you need the paycheck more than
the company needs to put up w/ your crap. If one instructor says "my way
or the highway" you can drop the class and pick it up next quarter from
some one else. Not so in business.
For my $0.02, I'll say that the reason that you demand a college degree in
a field is to weed the crop of prospective candidates. Say you advertise a
position for a tech writer and you get 257 resumis. Do YOU want to interview
257 folks and try to remember who is who? No. Leaf through them and reject
as many as possible as quickly as possible. No college degree period. Whack!
College degree in totally un-related field. Whack! Seventeen salaried
positions in five years. Whack! Misspelled misspelled. Whack! Is it a
manageable number yet? No? Whack some more.
Is there a possibility that the best possible candidate for the job got a
terse letter of rejection? Yes. But is the average company going to invest
the time and money it takes to sort through all of candidates to figure out
who is the best? No. The resumi is a (<) two minute sound bite and if doesn't
have the juice, you get the post card. Th-th-th-that's all f-folks!
******************** Steve Fouts
* _ ___ * sfouts -at- ellison -dot- sc -dot- ti -dot- com
* ( |____| *
* _ /\ |\ _ * "There's too many flames, and so much to burn,
* / / \ _| \ \ * and life's only made of paper."
* ( * ) \/_|__* ) * --Ronald Padivona
* \_/ _/ \_/ * <Boilerplate disclaimer here>
********************
