# Are companies lying about STEM jobs?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-companies-lying-about-stem-jobs/688858>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [May 20, 2014, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-companies-lying-about-stem-jobs/688858 "2014-05-20T20:16:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![rat\_avatar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rat_avatar/32/255_2.png) [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2014, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-companies-lying-about-stem-jobs/688858/101 "2014-06-12T06:37:23Z")

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> [@Dangerosa](#):
>
> Google’s hiring is heavily weighted towards people with advanced degrees. Its rare to find someone at Google that doesn’t have at least a Masters degree. When you are looking for minority, particularly African American and Hispanic candidates, but your minimum hiring requirements include an advanced degree, you have a very small pool of candidates. And just having the last name of Lopez and a master’s degree doesn’t mean you are a good fit for Google, whose hiring process is pretty focused on getting people who are good fits. Lots of White, Asian, and Indian people with Master’s degrees don’t make it through the interview process.

Oddly enough I have quite a few friends who work at Google, only one has an advanced degree and a few of them only have a GED.

When I interviewed with them they were more interested in seeing my open source code contributions. I never had a chance to finish my BS due to life events but I had the opportunity to turn down their job offer.

A college education is a great tool to help evaluate a junior candidate but is in no way an absolute requirement. I have been in the tech industry for a long time and have worked for some very big names. When making hire/no-hire decisions for mid to senior level positions I have never heard (but they don’t have a degree) uttered as a point of consideration.

Almost every job requirement in the tech industry states education requirements and most also state “or equivalent experience” and of those who don’t it is very often implied outside of government and education industries.

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