Quote:
Originally Posted by Sholar
To the extent that there's a widespread/strong bias against autodidacts it's probably because there's a misalignment in what is interesting to learn and what is useful to an employer.
I also think there is a discord between perceptions and reality, in part.
There are basically two classes of auto:
person 1 = the Codecademy / Udemy / W3Schools crowd.
person 2 = self full-on education (or as one auto said to me: a self-taught polymath).
The fact is, most people who call themselves autodidacts are going to be in slot one. While many of them were in college, etc, it is a very different creature than person 2.
The problem with person 2 is that (I think leavesofliberty is this type), he or she honestly believes it is a great story, showing initiative, self-starting, passion, etc. The reality is that hiring managers are thinking "cool story, bro."
Because there is a much larger dominance of person 1, and person 1 has did just enough to get in after 6 months of learning, a hiring manager is going to have the perception that all autodidacts are person 1. Since person 1 has already burned the trail, it stands to reason that person 2 should set aside his ego / self-doubt and follow the path of person 1. Person 1 is at an advantage because they know they are impostors (of sorts) and embrace that fact.
The problem with person 2 is he is frightened of being an impostor. He goes out and builds up a website with user logins, commenting, rare frameworks, plug-ins, loads up ads, creates a massive neural net, etc. This is all just one little step from monetization.
What does person 2 end up looking like? An overly driven person who plans to bide his time at a company, put in said 40+ hours at night, then quit once he figures out his strategy. This is a high-risk person, and while it sounds wrong from an idealistic perspective (and contradicts the 100s of HN front-page articles on "passion"), it is not wrong from the employer perspective. They don't have time to deal with people who aren't going to stick around and commit to the growth of the company for a few years.
Of course, there are other problems with the person 2 story. One that I've dealt with a few times is utter skepticism. Did I really teach myself everything I claim? Did I really build whatever by myself? That's a large ball of yarn to swallow, and it doesn't make a lot of sense to the interviewer or recruiter. They can quiz me all day on this stuff and I'll be sure to answer their questions, but the point is people understand simple stories, and it does well for person 2 (or anyone with initiative to roll their own) to understand this.