A billion of these stories never prepared me for the utter shitshow that laid itself bare to me when I first became a hiring manager. I’m self-taught, am strongly philosophically opposed to educational or past employer ‘prestige’ like working for FAANG or whatever. Still, I learned pretty quickly to not trust a bunch of naive ‘intuitive’ signals.
I began my career in a startup where pretty much everyone else but myself was an Ivy grad, with many coming from FAANG internships, and I have very high opinions of them. We all were very driven and all had things to teach each other. I don't want to downplay the notion that it's an indicator of high quality talent. I just think that it shouldn't be downplayed that growing up developing software out of an interest in the work is a strong indicator too.
