Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + suits necessary, neutral, or harmful?

Re:Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + su... by carterschonwald on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @12:37AM (#219424)

There are certainly counterexamples to the "excise high school references". Consider for example one of the NYC magnet high schools such as Bronx Science (or Stuyvesant), which on paper at least have a track record of producing 1 physics Nobel Laureate and 1 Turing award winner each per decade (on average). In such a school, a characterization of where one was on the continuum of creative intelligence can be a pretty strong statement.

(granted most High Schools aren't that magical on paper, so the parent post has a valid point in principle)

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Re:Interviewing for startups : are formal cover letters + su... by cperciva on Tuesday June 17, 2008 @05:16PM (#220137)

I considered adding "unless you went to Stuyvesant, Upper Canada College, or Eton" -- but I'm not convinced that this is useful if you're applying for a high tech job. If you're trying to get into politics, saying "look at how politically well-connected I am" is certainly useful; but if I saw a CV which mentioned attending Eton, my immediate reaction would be to judge the rest of it more harshly -- because I'd be thinking "you had all those advantages, but this is all you've managed to do so far?"

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