Ask HN: How to not be intimidated by people with higher credentials?

You may be confusing class with credentials. (Leaving aside the accustomed confusion between credentials and ability.) Sorry to sound flippant, but I found it to be true: spend a lot of time with top level talent and you get used to it. On the other hand, if you have bad teeth or a regional accent, you might never overcome even the internal barriers.

What's "only found in elite circles" is being in elite circles. That's it.

You're confident in what you do. Do it, and do it well. Let that speak for you. Let it be your "credential". Those who do it better, well, they have higher credentials than you.

An Ivy League degree may mean a better education. Or, it may not. It may mean that their application looked better than yours. Or it may mean that they got in on a "legacy" application, because five generations of their family went to that school. It may mean a wealthier family background, or a really nice scholarship, or it may just mean a really big student loan.

Don't judge by the degree. If they flaunt the degree, it means that they are hung up on the degree, but it doesn't mean you should be. (And why are they hung up on the degree? Maybe, because of a bit of insecurity. If you have to show off your university credentials at your job, maybe you aren't convinced that your job performance shows you off...)

But "I've always been a slacker when it comes to education"? Well, don't be a slacker when it comes to your job.

I have a good degree and am fairly senior. I was on a team with a couple peoples first job out of boot camps, and new grads, as the only senior person on the team.

I’ve done mostly backend/devops type work, and this was a full stack react project, and I’ve never done react. So I’m doing a new feature and pull one of the boot camp graduates and ask for help. “Really you want my help?” This person had no cs background but was way more knowledgeable than me in this.

My point being, everyone has something to add regardless of their background. Up or down find people to learn from.

Also, I don’t know anybody’s resume - I may have read it while interviewing but I read so many they’re totally forgotten. Really don’t care

Keep it all about the goals. Where you are strong, don't hold back. Nail it.

Where you need help, ask for it unabashedly. Where you can give help, give it unabashedly.

Put real time, some fraction of your personal time, into continuing to be relevant. This will give you skills you need, and things, projects, interests to talk about and show off.

Once, I got a call from a friend: "I'm the dumbest guy here." Reframed that, with a quick reminder about what smarts are, what wisdom is.

What he really meant was he was the least experienced person there. I told him, "good, you are gonna grow a whole lot." And he did, then moved on to something else after finding that particular role wasn't for him. And that's not inability to perform either. He just felt more strongly for something else.

The truth is, most of us are smart enough. You are, and being here to ask about this in the way you just did shows it too. The rest is work, and a chunk of that work is just caring enough about the things that matter. Time spent sorting that, from things that probably don't is high value.

From there, the amount of that work depends on a whole lot of things too. We all have the choice to either do it or not.

So do the work. It will show.

All of that will net you the advantage or at least garner favor, respect, a very significant percentage of the time. That's really as good as it all ever gets.

Say you did have a degree. What would you change about these basic dynamics? I've been through this process a few times now, and have learned it's not worth changing a thing. Attacking your worries this way can work. Worked and continues to work for me.

Play very strong in your lane too. Whatever that lane is, make sure you've got your basic priorities in order.

Others, who should be playing in theirs, sometimes don't. Sometimes you won't either. Stand ready to help, and let that be known you treat people on your team right. Nobody wants to fail. It just costs everyone.

Be flexible in these things, and I'm speaking to that help we all might need, or perspective we want to share, or help we may need to give.

An example of what I'm trying to convey here might be past experiences. Right now, I'm in a technical service, support position. It's technically an executive role, but the company is small, so mostly it's a lot of work and looking hard to make the right calls consistently right now, model the future, because it's coming soon kind of thing.

This means putting out a lot of fires, saving asses. I've had a number of roles, and gladly share those experiences with people who hold them now. IT, training, consulting, manufacturing, engineering...

Others know this, and know I'm there to advise, help, share, and expect the same in return. After a time, once the team solidifies, begins to really run well, everyone who modeled these things are well respected, own the culture, and newbies as they come in can tell all of that, and the ones who get it, seek that, and their own place.

What typically happens is people will come and find me to talk. What they really want to do is think through or past something. Great, let's do that and find out what we think makes sense and act on it.

Often, I think of this as working with people, mutual respect, mutual consideration. Has paid off for me many, many times, and yes! Among people with credentials far greater than mine. Sometimes, it mattered a little early on. Maybe a proof or two, or some deft management of office dynamics were needed. Nothing too tough, unless I made it tough. Sometimes this is just automatic, rote behavior, the product of old, or shallow norms in play in that particular organization.

In most of the cases, I got the opportunity to really help, or add value and just did, no worries. The trick is to be there, not judgmental, just observant, ready. Doesn't take many of those for most people to get what y...

Ivy League schools aren't that special, academically speaking, at the undergrad level. With exceptions, of course, the students aren't really held to any special standards different from elsewhere. You might have missed out on meeting some rich kids, but they probably missed out on having a good football team.

Remind yourself that while they're really good at something, you can certainly beat them in something else. No one is perfect and we all have or strengths and weaknesses. It never fails me!

> How do I avoid becoming insecure about my background?

The only people that care about that stuff are insecure themselves. Don't care what people like that think about you.

Focus on what you know now, what you need to learn and how you're going to learn it. You don't have to go to a well known university to become good at something.