For those in HR or who those in the business world who hire, if you are looking into a candidate with experience (let’s say somebody with 5 or more years of experience) does the level of their college matter?
I understand that some firms only recruit to fill entry level positions from their preferred colleges (those that are either top-tier or whom they have a relationship with) but does that requirement disappear as you gain work experience.
This came up today when somebody who has worked on Wall Street for over 30 years was asked what colleges their company gets their upper managers from. The response was they come from everywhere - nobody cares at that level - only the candidate’s job experience mattered.
Do others find this to be true? When does this change (after how many years of work)? Does this vary for different types of jobs/companies?
Mostly true, unless the hiring manager is picky about it. Even then, you will probably get an interview if you are well qualified. It matters a lot less once you are a few years out of college.
However, if the industry is school-elitist, would it be more difficult for someone from a less desired (by the industry) school to get a job where s/he can acquire the desired experience that will make him/her able to be hired into that industry?
I worked for the big consulting firms in my prior life. The people in HR seemed to care about college and major for entry level. None of us who actually had to execute big projects cared. We hired whoever had the best experience and seemed like a good fit for the stressful work load of our team.
In some industries/firms, where there is competition for business, there is a preference for resumes that sell well on stats - i.e., the team will include a Rhodes scholar from Stanford, etc. If the role isn’t customer -facing, far more likely that what you can do, rather than where you once studied, will be all that mstters.
I also worked for one if the big consulting firms. And guess what one of my recruiting beats was? Luther College in Iowa. Now did we see as many candidates there with the polish we wanted? No… I’d guess percentage wise we hired fewer than we did at higher ranked schools. But a student with good stats could get an interview – then needed to show that they had what we were looking for.
I work for a government contractor. The company is constantly bidding for new projects. Proposals include people’s resumes, which list the colleges where we got our degrees.
I’m one of two people who do exactly the same job. I graduated from a well-known college. My colleague didn’t. My name is included in the proposed team for almost every new project my department bids on. He is never, ever bid on a proposal.
If the department was hiring a new person for a position like ours, would they consider the prestige of the school the person graduated from because of its impact on the constant struggle to get new projects? I’m not sure. But I can see where it could be the tipping factor if there were two equally qualified job applicants with degrees from different sorts of colleges.
Like @BunsenBurner , where my s’s work, those are the major 2 hiring criteria. They had a “no a’holes” policy. DH#1 took a new position within the company several months ago, and when I asked recently how it was going, he mentioned that the person he now has to work with primarily is … shall we say… difficult. Uncooperative. A yeller. I asked "I thought they had a “no a’holes hiring policy?” His response : “One slipped through”.
Where I work there are two of us at the same senior level. I went to a very selective well known undergrad. The other person went to Central Ct State College. Undergrad obviously didn’t matter for my employer.
@sherpa – you need to be wary of reading to much into a advertised job description. Sometimes a company has someone already in mind for a job, but they are required to advertise it because of HR policies – so they tailor the job description around the qualifications of the person they already have in mind. That being said, 4 years of experience is only one step beyond entry level… so the “VP” title in the listing you saw could be misleading — they might still look at it as an essentially entry-level position for a newly minted MBA.
The company I have been at for almost 2 years is basically the same policy as @BunsenBurner. They hire well qualified people who are not a-holes and fit in with current staff.
I don’t care about colleges if the candidate has relevant experience, however the candidates who have graduated from reputable colleges or programs, or have been trained by well-known professors have much more impressive accomplishments, and are generally much better qualified for the job based on experience. There are very few exceptions.
I am an engineer, but due to the small size of our group, I sometimes get tasked with vetting new hire candidates.
We have had our fair share of duds from top-end, competitive schools, as well as from run-of-the-mill schools.
Experience trumps school pedigree in most cases, IMO, especially with mid-to-late career people. You really must consider the fact that many high-achieving people end up at average colleges for reasons other than academic performance and intelligence.
I have a career in accounting but it has all been in corporate accounting departments. College prestige does not seem to matter much. It does help to be a CPA regardless of where you went to school.
It might be different in public accounting.
At a prior job my then boss hired a person and made a big deal about the fact that she went to Harvard. The first day working with her I learned two things: 1. She revealed that Harvard was for one year and she left for academic reasons and 2. She was a total flake. She lasted about an month.
Pick a company. Any company. Go to their website and look at the profiles of the senior executives. Note how most of them graduated “ordinary” colleges.
I think it depends. In the engineering field, it doesnt really ever matter. In the legal field, it almost always matters. In certain industries like business development in the biotechnology industry, it matters. My last biotech the biz dev head would only hire harvard biz school grads. No cut and dried answer.