
Ask HN: I have a 6th-grade education. Should I hide this in interviews? - throwawaysixthg
My formal education ended after 6th grade (chaotic childhood, meth house).<p>At 16 I started earning enough to live on, doing something on my own that was tangentially related to software, math, logic (keeping it vague to protect id). I did that for a number of years, then became interested in programming and a lot of those skills transferred over very well.<p>I got a formal software job years ago, and have since held a few positions, including senior engineering positions, at some small- and mid-size Bay Area tech companies.<p>Now I&#x27;m being invited to on-sites at bigger companies (Google, FB, Amazon, etc).<p>I used to be ashamed, but at this point, my academic history has become something I&#x27;m actually very proud of. Someday, I would like to be open and &quot;out&quot; about it, but I don&#x27;t know when (or if) it will ever be safe for me to do that.<p>It seems like the kind of thing that should be mentioned during the interview process, not after. So my question is: How significantly would this reduce my likelihood of receiving an offer from a major tech company?
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codingdave
Let me correct one thing - it is not that you have a 6th grade education, it
is that you stopped formal schooling at the 6th grade and completed your
education on your own. If you truly had stopped learning, you would not have
accomplished what you described.

So rather than fret over when the last time you sat in a classroom was... Be
proud and confident of who you are, what you have accomplished, and what you
will accomplish in the future.

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akulbe
At some point that goes away. Your future educational history eclipses and
sort of "hides" all that.

I got a GED in 1991, in lieu of traditional high school graduation. I'd been
in foster care. Once I'd been in college, the pre-college educational history
no longer matters.

Since I finished my degree in 2013 (finally!) that I'd started in 1991…
anything before it is irrelevant. There may be an outlier company where this
doesn't apply, but I feel like that's the exception and not the rule.

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gshdg
When education is used as a hiring filter, it’s usually at the resume stage,
where other signals are week. Once you’ve reached on-site it’s about what you
know and can do, not what pieces of paper you possess.

Being self-taught as a programmer myself, and knowing what’s involved in that,
I’m a little bit in awe of anyone who managed to learn programming with no
more than an elementary school formal education. I can’t speak for random
FAANG interviewers, but hopefully they’ll also be suitably impressed.

Maybe save it to share until you’ve already wowed them with your skills,
rather than sharing up front, which might cause them to evaluate you based on
biases or stereotypes?

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tuyguntn
If you made to on-site interviews at FAANG companies, do not worry about
anything. These guys are intelligent enough to evaluate your actual software
and soft skills necessary to be successful at their respective companies.

~~~
intv_stress
It seems like they give everyone a interview now days. Man I don't think its
worth the time. I have just ignored all recruiters from google. Those guys are
pretty unprofessional. I prefer the Facebook recruiters.

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bb88
I suggest you do an experiment, and try it on some companies you don't care if
you get an offer or not.

Do 10 interviews. 5 of which you hide this fact to the best of your ability,
and the other 5 embrace it as a positive part of your history.

You don't have to wait for a call back, you should just be able to read the
interviewer's expression as you tell him this.

And again, it depends upon how you sell it. If you sell yourself as "damaged
goods", you probably won't get an offer. If on the other hand you sell
yourself as someone who has "overcome" a terrible life story, it might work in
your favor, and you never know, it might open doors you wouldn't expect to
open.

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thiago_fm
Unless they ask you to, you tell them. And I think that by doing that and
telling that you come from that background and maybe give them a bit of
display how you have learned everything by yourself(Great quality!!!), you
mind end up even with more respect.

But I would only talk about it if I had to. When I go to interviews, even
though that I have a BS in CS, I don't talk about it, it's already on my CV
and people should know it. As I'm a Senior/Lead whatever developer with many
years of experience, that makes no difference whatsoever. Because even my deep
knowledge I've learned in CS about B-tree algorithms already has been mostly
forgotten and can be revived only by Googling it a few minutes, and if I'm
preparing for a interview, I'll review it... and those things are better
proven live(in a whiteboard or in a coding challenge) than with a
Diploma(which very rarely they will ask).

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invisiblerobot
As someone who has hired masters degree comp sci grads and self taught
programmers, I can tell you personally I would find your story impressive and
attribute to you both grit and self sufficiency.

But it depends on who you're talking to I guess. You'll have to gauge their
openmindedness for yourself.

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AnimalMuppet
> I got a formal software job years ago, and have since held a few positions,
> including senior engineering positions, at some small- and mid-size Bay Area
> tech companies.

You're golden. If you've done it on the job, most people don't care what your
formal education is. (Some do care. Ignore them.)

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codingslave
I know a CTO at a well known, but small, quant hedge fund who only graduated
from high school. He works along side multiple Math PHDs from MIT. Anything is
possible when your skills (programming and math) can be verified easily. Good
luck on your career and congrats!

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Trias11
Explicitly advertising your past might not help you to progress over your
"typical" engineering career.

That said if you want to become a vigilante for "how to be successful with bad
childhood and no education" \- that might work really well.

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saluki
Congratulations.

At the interview stage I expect it would not even come up.

I wouldn't boast about it either though.

Nice work, good luck at the interviews.

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Spooky23
Embrace it. Personally, I’d interpret that as an asset in your favor.

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sgeneris
It looks like somebody has censored this thread, deleting comments from it.

