Ask HN: Would you hire a dropout?

Drop-out from high school, or university/college? I'm part of the latter group & hire people from that pool frequently.

No, but my industry is license-based, and acquiring the license requires a degree and a very expensive test.

The problem for most jobs that "require" a degree is that a degree signifies a minimum knowledge base and experience with the subject matter (if not practical experience) of the position. The point at which work experience becomes more important than having a degree depends heavily on the position. Thus, for example, work experience will probably always be more important than a degree for something like design, but a degree may be more important for starting out in development (assuming that you do not already have work experience in the relevant areas).

Further: people in my industry tend to pursue a formal education, work, and/or self-education simultaneously (or at least two of these options). Any candidate who couldn't handle work and education simultaneously would simply not cut it, unless they opted for work because they could not afford to work and pursue an education at the same time.

Really depends why they dropped out. Here in Finland I would not hire any drop outs, because money is not good reason to drop out because students like me get cash to live on our own while studying in upper secondary school, vocational school, universities until something like age of 28. If they can not handle graduating from the school, how the heck I can trust them to become better at the job and keep their interest even if it might become little bit boring.

The only reason I accept for dropping out of school is money problems, but even then I trust those people more who will work on the side of their studies.

The degree is there to show that the candidate is qualified. One can't tell by mind-reading a candidate.

Unless the candidate was too poor to afford the school, or born in the 3rd world, or something like that, there's not much excuse for not having the piece of paper.

If you decide to hire the dropout, you are gambling on "this guy dropped out because he's the next John Carmack, not a loser". The odds are poor.

ADDENDUM: The degree acts as an arbitrary filter because you simply do not have the resources to exhaustively examine every candidate. you only take a closer look at the candidates that make it through the filter.

I am a dropout. So, yes I would hire someone like me.