"To question education is really dangerous. It's the absolute taboo..."

[sakky]

<p>

You know what sakky, something just occurred to me - time marches on, and the decades are adding up. Although I’ve met these degree-less former Microsoft developers/offerees throughout my career, including recently, none of them are new stories. Now that I do the math, my most recent example would have probably been a Microsoft hire in the mid 90’s, not too far removed from the original culture. So perhaps what I think of as a common story might actually be only the traditional Microsoft story. The most likely places for a CS hire without a degree would certainly be in the smaller companies.

</p>

<p>MisterK, no worries. I never meant to badger you. </p>

<p>The reason why I asked for evidence is because I would have then showed it to some of my colleagues, who would have then surely been surprised and intrigued. To our knowledge, any recent full-time hiring by Microsoft of non-graduates is far from usual. {We are not saying that it never happens, as it probably does, but we would just find it to be far from the norm.} </p>

<p>The fact is, Microsoft has aged to the point of becoming a mature and institutionalized company, with the employment policies of such a company. That should be unsurprising considering that Microsoft is pushing 40 years of age. Somebody without a college degree - such as a young Bill Gates - would (ironically) find it difficult to garner a job offer at Microsoft. Heck, (even more ironically), he would surely find it easier to garner an offer at a startup company who aims to disrupt Microsoft.</p>