

Dropbox (YC S07) looking for Android Developer - bigwill
http://dropbox.theresumator.com/apply/eq08Lm/

======
sown
>* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from a top-tier institution.

I always hated this requirement. I'm sorry if I don't have the right
_pedigree_ to satisfy people like this. I'm sorry I didn't go to the "right"
school, wasn't born into the right family or just a failure in their eyes.

~~~
huangm
Your problem is that you're taking job postings personally. Dropbox isn't
posting a job posting to make an objective statement about what makes someone
good. They're posting it to fill a position in their company.

Your bachelors degree institution also isn't just a pedigree. You can't
perpetually argue that 'everyone is equal'. People aren't equal, and where you
went to school is a useful signal.

Beyond all this, the Dropbox guys are predominantly MIT, and expecting
applicants to be from a similar environment should be seen not as insulting,
but natural.

~~~
sown
I'm not arguing that everyone is equal.

What I am saying is that it is almost but not quite discrimination. I can't
control with total fidelity what school I get in no matter how good a student
I might be -- ie, if I'm good enough to go to MIT I can go to MIT. They can't
let in anyone who is good enough to go to MIT because there is only so much
space. And besides, I don't have the money to go there nor did I have the
money for the right college prep school[1]. I got handed some cards by life
that meant I had to slowly work through a state university at my own cost.

I'm not mad at you or people who went to Ivy league schools, it's just that I
get a little tired of people immediately shutting me out (parties, interviews,
life in general) as soon as I mention that I went to some _Unknown_ State
university. Maybe it's just a SV thing but it gets old. Really old. So when I
see it in a job posting I can't help but to take it personally. It's something
you'll never have to worry about since you yourself are an MIT student.

I realize that they don't have to make me happy and they're free to hire from
whatever school but they don't have to say it out-loud.

1 - Whether that prep school was an actual school or it was a parent who could
stay at home screeching into the ears of their kids to motivate them or both,
it means that they had the money for that school or one parent could stay
home.

~~~
hyperbovine

      They can't let in anyone who is good enough to go to MIT because there is only so much space.
    

Exactly. You hit the nail on the head--consequently, "good enough" doesn't cut
it to get into MIT. You have to be the best of the best. Which means, if
you're looking to hire the best of the best, you look for people who went to
MIT. As you also rightly point out, this is not discrimination because clearly
they'd be willing to hire a badass who didn't go to a top school. The job
market is one giant signaling game, and having a rocking degree is a strong
signal.

~~~
tsally
_You have to be the best of the best._

Not quite. You have to be the diverse of the best (if I may mutilate English
to make my point). Horror stories come out every year of the kid with perfect
test scores and GPA who gets rejected from [insert prestigious school here].
It's not enough (and rightly so) to be the best of the best. You've got to
have something different. Some distinguishing factors that come to mind are:

* Socio-economic background

* Athletic and musical ability

* Ethnicity and gender

* Unusual, proven talent in some rare area

------
phreanix
Kinda related, but why is dropbox.com or getdropbox.com coming up as attack
site? I'm using Firefox.

~~~
spicyj
From the (supposedly malware-filled) forums:

 _hi guys,

google falsely blacklisted the entire domain as a result of some users hosting
malicious files as public links. your files are safe and nothing about dropbox
is malicious. this happened as a result of the switch from getdropbox.com to
dropbox.com. the dropbox.com domain hadn't earned a positive reputation and
thus a single user hosting malicious content resulted in the entire domain
being blacklisted. we're working with google now to resolve this ASAP._

------
amichail
BTW, the iPhone app would be more useful with editors. Even just a plain text
editor would be very useful.

------
RK
Someone please get this job! :)

~~~
mcotton
I would love to have dropbox on my G1.

