Degrees

Dan Benjamin, on Build and Analyze episode 96:

But here’s the thing. I mean, there’s still so many people out there who are in computer science, who are writing code, who are doing design, whatever, who have degrees in completely different things. It doesn’t matter. To me…not to undermine what you’re saying because overall I agree…but for me it’s always been more about the person, the enthusiasm, about the kind of person they are, because you can teach skills but you can’t teach accountability, you can’t teach credibility. You can’t teach that kind of thing. You can take someone who is a talented, quality person and they can learn anything and they can be anything, and that’s what really counts. I’ve hired tons and tons of people and I’ve been overall least happy with the ones who had applicable, I’m doing air quotes, ‘applicable’, degrees compared to the ones that are like ‘I’m gonna figure this out, I’m gonna learn it, I’m going to do a good job.’ And those are the people you want around and those are the ones who stick around.

Ain’t that the truth. What is most important when you’re in a job is your willingness to learn new things. What Marco says is right, for a lot of jobs you need a degree just to get a look in, to get past the first hurdle. But once you’re in somewhere you just have to figure out how to adapt and get better at whatever you’re being asked to do.