Re:Ask HN: What's the biggest red flag you've encountered du...
by jsjdjd37 on Wednesday August 23, 2023 @10:06PM
(#37244257)
I've had similar red flags when interviewed by management with masters or PhD's. They seem to think they would be tainting themselves by hiring someone obviously dumb, in their view.
This firm clearly put a huge amount of stock in education. They were 4 blocks from a major CS university, and a significant number of staff were recent grads. I suspect the CEO had a masters which only adds credence to their belief in the education system.
On top of that, they knew how much I was making ($x), how much I was asking for ($x + $50,000), and ended up offering me more ($x + $150,000). That's not the kind of thing you do when you're trying to dissuade someone from taking a job with you. Especially when the offer is 100% cash (company was private and they offered no equity).
I strongly suspect that this person came from a bubble of education, and just didn't understand how you could be a poor student and then successful outside of academia.