Peter Thiel's unexpected job requirement • Hacker News Board

Re: Peter Thiel's unexpected job requirement

#31

Post by [deleted] » Mon, May 14, 2012, 6:43 PM UTC

prayag wrote: post #19

jbellis wrote: post #3

This is stupid. Do people really think Thiel is personally managing every job opening at every company he's associated with? Non-sequitur "gotcha" reporting at its worst. I expected better from Yglesias.

Even if he personally approved of this opening. There is nothing wrong with it. The problem is that these reporters that Peter Thiel is anti-education or at least anti-higher education. He isn't. He has a problem with the current model of education. He thinks that there are more efficient models of education that are worth trying. It's not black and white, it's much more nuanced. Thiel cannot go back in time and chan…

[deleted]

Re: Peter Thiel's unexpected job requirement

#32

Post by ridruejo » Mon, May 14, 2012, 6:51 PM UTC

defilade wrote: post #27

lrm242 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course the flip side is Thiel has been so amazingly vocal about his views on higher education you'd think he would have made a his staff aware that this requirement wasn't aligned with his views. In the end it is mostly a depiction of how having a degree is a door opener because it is a default filter for almost all hiring managers. Even hiring managers employed by a vocal advocate of skipping college.

The job requirements and qualifications for an entrepreneur and a hedge fund analyst are so different that it's not necessarily inconsistent

I wholeheartedly agree. In this particular case they may be the opposite ones.

Re: Peter Thiel's unexpected job requirement

#33

Post by Aloisius » Mon, May 14, 2012, 6:52 PM UTC

There is so much grade inflation at schools today that using it as a filtering mechanism for any position seems rather pointless.

Elite schools are especially bad about this. The average GPA at Harvard is 3.45 (it was 2.5 in 1950). Yale is at 3.5 (was 2.5 in 1963). Stanford is at 3.5 (was 2.6 in 1948). At one point, over 90% of the graduating class at Harvard graduated with honors.

If Thiel is requiring a top-tier school, it is because of the network the person brings, not because of the education.

Re: Peter Thiel's unexpected job requirement

#34

Post by j_baker » Mon, May 14, 2012, 7:06 PM UTC

jbellis wrote: post #3

This is stupid. Do people really think Thiel is personally managing every job opening at every company he's associated with? Non-sequitur "gotcha" reporting at its worst. I expected better from Yglesias.

Perhaps. But if that firm just so happens to be named "Thiel Capital", I think it's fair to assume that Thiel has some responsibility, wouldn't you agree?

Re: Peter Thiel's unexpected job requirement

#35

Post by srconstantin » Mon, May 14, 2012, 7:18 PM UTC

There's a difference between optimizing for current conditions, and changing future conditions.

Optimizing for current conditions: right now, a lot of the best job applicants have degrees from top-tier schools, and if you need to hire someone today, using education as a job filter is a reasonable choice.

Changing future conditions: there are plausible arguments that universities should not have a monopoly on education and credentialing, and promoting alternatives to a college degree may be a reasonable long-term advocacy and philanthropic goal.

The real story is: what's going on with this new hedge fund? Is the focus on "conclusions that are fundamentally correct but missed by most of the world" an actual strategy or a contrarian buzzword?

Re: Peter Thiel's unexpected job requirement

#36

Post by sliverstorm » Mon, May 14, 2012, 7:29 PM UTC

Aloisius wrote: post #33

There is so much grade inflation at schools today that using it as a filtering mechanism for any position seems rather pointless. Elite schools are especially bad about this. The average GPA at Harvard is 3.45 (it was 2.5 in 1950). Yale is at 3.5 (was 2.5 in 1963). Stanford is at 3.5 (was 2.6 in 1948). At one point, over 90% of the graduating class at Harvard graduated with honors. If Thiel is requiring a top-tier sc…

I know you've removed it now, but I thought I'd point out the word is "shudder". Normally I don't care about spelling, but the two are very different words.

Apologies; carry on.

Re: Peter Thiel's unexpected job requirement

#37

Post by Aloisius » Mon, May 14, 2012, 7:30 PM UTC

sliverstorm wrote: post #36

Aloisius wrote: post #33

There is so much grade inflation at schools today that using it as a filtering mechanism for any position seems rather pointless. Elite schools are especially bad about this. The average GPA at Harvard is 3.45 (it was 2.5 in 1950). Yale is at 3.5 (was 2.5 in 1963). Stanford is at 3.5 (was 2.6 in 1948). At one point, over 90% of the graduating class at Harvard graduated with honors. If Thiel is requiring a top-tier sc…

I know you've removed it now, but I thought I'd point out the word is "shudder". Normally I don't care about spelling, but the two are very different words. Apologies; carry on.

I'm a bit sleep deprived right now. Not particularly a great time to post on HN. :)

Re: Peter Thiel's unexpected job requirement

#38

Post by strlen » Mon, May 14, 2012, 7:37 PM UTC

Aloisius wrote: post #33

There is so much grade inflation at schools today that using it as a filtering mechanism for any position seems rather pointless. Elite schools are especially bad about this. The average GPA at Harvard is 3.45 (it was 2.5 in 1950). Yale is at 3.5 (was 2.5 in 1963). Stanford is at 3.5 (was 2.6 in 1948). At one point, over 90% of the graduating class at Harvard graduated with honors. If Thiel is requiring a top-tier sc…

On the other hand, the average SAT score at Harvard in 1950 was much lower than the average SAT score today (adjusted for SAT re-calibration as well).

Grade inflation also applies mostly to non-STEM majors. Average GPA for EECS at many of the top CS schools is significantly below a 3.0. Incidentally, it creates a feedback loop: grade inflation leads people to obsesses over their GPA and to switch from STEM to the majors more susceptible to grade inflation when their GPA falls below a certain point.

Re: Peter Thiel's unexpected job requirement

#39

Post by jarek » Mon, May 14, 2012, 7:42 PM UTC

defilade wrote: post #27

lrm242 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course the flip side is Thiel has been so amazingly vocal about his views on higher education you'd think he would have made a his staff aware that this requirement wasn't aligned with his views. In the end it is mostly a depiction of how having a degree is a door opener because it is a default filter for almost all hiring managers. Even hiring managers employed by a vocal advocate of skipping college.

The job requirements and qualifications for an entrepreneur and a hedge fund analyst are so different that it's not necessarily inconsistent

Has Thiel been careful to always specify that his anti-higher-education-in-the-U.S. stance only applies to entrepreneurial people?

Re: Peter Thiel's unexpected job requirement

#40

Post by objclxt » Mon, May 14, 2012, 7:51 PM UTC

Aloisius wrote: post #33

There is so much grade inflation at schools today that using it as a filtering mechanism for any position seems rather pointless. Elite schools are especially bad about this. The average GPA at Harvard is 3.45 (it was 2.5 in 1950). Yale is at 3.5 (was 2.5 in 1963). Stanford is at 3.5 (was 2.6 in 1948). At one point, over 90% of the graduating class at Harvard graduated with honors. If Thiel is requiring a top-tier sc…

In defence of Harvard, whilst at one point over 90% graduated with honors it is now capped, so that only 50% of the class will graduate with any kind of honors. I used to get a significant number of students emailing me when final grades came out moaning that because of their B+ they'd never make the cap for honors (I Head TA'd a few courses).

I do wholeheartedly agree with you: using GPA as a filter is fairly pointless.