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Ask HN: How much of “You don't need a degree to get a job” is true?

3 points by ziikutv ↗ HN
As a point of reference, Elon Musk has been very vocal about University education. However, if you visit the career page of either SpaceX or Tesla, you will note that a degree is a requirement. Furthermore, assuming it is not required and a nice to have, most postings require multiple years of professional experience in a related field. Of course, due to the nature of these businesses, I completely understand requirement of degree or a related professional experience. However, I wonder if a person without a degree can even land a job in other companies in an effort to hop to SpaceX/Tesla.

My goal with this thread is not to shit on SpaceX or Tesla. I am just trying to start a dialog about what someone seeking work in similar fields without a degree would do.

Unrelated: I do have a degree, but my grade are in upper B (B/B+ or A- at best depending GPA scale) range and was just checking out some places that I consider 'dream job'. This question sort of just popped up in my head and I decided it to blurt it. I already have a full time job waiting for me at a startup I loved to work at :)

Good day

5 comments

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toyg
How much? Very little. Any vaguely formal hiring system will weed out non-graduates faster than you can say "Elon". Without a degree, you'll have to live and die by your network and your hustle, which may or may not work well for any given person.

The cynic in me thinks the current "you don't need a degree" wave is a fashion to get more people working for ramen. After all, VCs work in aggregate: throw enough sleep-deprived ramen-eating younglings at the keyboard, and one of them will eventually give you a unicorn. The more you can chain to that way of life in the long term (because they can't fall back to traditional careers without that magic piece of paper), the better.

I say this as a dropout who learnt these lessons the hard way.

ziikutv
Yeah, this was my problem. I do not think its a good idea not to have some sort of a backup. I want to take the leaps of faith that one needs to make to start a startup (or heck, even join one in its infancy), but having this shitty piece of paper that will act as a cushion is good. At least, I know that if I start a family, I won't be feeding them ramen as well.

I am... really worried about that part of one's life, being ~24/25.

twobyfour
1) Once you're a couple years out of school, nobody (and I mean nobody) gives two fucks what your grades were, just that you got the degree

2) getting the first few years of experience without the degree is the hard part. A whole lot of job postings have an implicit if not an explicit "or equivalent experience" tacked on the the bachelor's requirement.

ziikutv
Thank you,

I agree with #1 100%. I actually took a year off and found a startup in a field where I had an idea for a startup but decided not to do; statistically, it would've been a challenge.

In any case, while my friends were doing co-op (which is like an internship but you get paid and companies get tax benefits), I found and worked at a full-time job. They were busy commenting legacy code while I got to learn so much about everything. This company I worked at even trusted me to fly out and meet directly with clients who would show up with a team of 30 or so Engineers. I truly love this company and I am going back to them.

Regarding #2, I guess I must have struck a universal magic cord and lucked out! But my worry is that, 5-6 years down the line, if I won't be able to goto a company like Tesla/SpaceX for a) having shit grades, b) not getting experience in their field (my startup is more CS/CE) but my degree is in Systems Engineering.

Regards,

B

twobyfour
If your experience is in the field you want to go into, you should be able to work at those places without a degree in said field, but you may have to circumvent parts of the hiring process. Don't submit your resume to keyword-sifting online black holes. Network your way into an interview, even if you have to do it through recruiters (which should be your last resort).

If your experience is not in the field you want to be in, regardless of whether your degree is, get that experience first. That may mean a few more years paying dues at entry level again. Once you've established yourself as competent in that field, go after the big players.

Also, many places will accept a closely related degree as a substitute for a specific degree. For instance, a bachelors in electrical engineering will get your foot in the door for many programming jobs.