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And several other scenario. I would understand if that's hard for you to fathom. After all, you are an American whose experience in the international arena is somewhat limited. If you've gone abroad, perhaps your idea about school popularity would change a bit.
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<p>Is that an ad-hominem attack? Trust me, I actually have EXTENSIVE international working experience. And I think I have a pretty darn good understanding of what is happening outside of the country.</p>
<p>From what I have seen - Harvard is Harvard. If anything, the Harvard brand name is even more powerful outside of the US than it is within the US. Heck, if there is one school that everybody has heard of throughout the world, it is Harvard. Like it or not, that's the reality. </p>
<p>But aspirant, the point is this. Be careful with ad-hominem attacks, as they are specifically barred by the terms of service here on CC. I don't comment on your background, so don't comment on mine. </p>
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There are companies in the Philippines that prioritize Harvard grads and so are there companies which prefer Berkeley (Haas) grads over Harvard grads, or companies that prefer Northwestern (Kellogg) grads over Harvard grads.
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<p>This point I can agree with, but it has nothing to do with 'popularity'. I know many companies who refuse to recruit at Harvard or MIT or any of the other top schools. Heck, I know of one extremely famous company who used to have long-standing recruiting ties to MIT and who is now cutting those ties, preferring to instead recruit at local no-name schools. It has nothing to do with the fact that they think that MIT students are bad. In fact, the opposite is true - that they think the students are 'too good', meaning that the company doesn't think it can offer the types of salaries and opportunites that MIT graduates expect. </p>
<p>You have to keep in mind that companies are not really out to get the absolute best graduates. Not exactly. What they REALLY want are the best graduates who are also willing to work happily at the jobs that the company can provide. MIT engineers, for example, want high pay and exciting jobs with top prospects for advancement, and the truth is, a lot of companies just can't offer that, and the companies know it. It does no good for a company to hire a person only to have that person get bored with the job or become unhappy with the salary and then quit. The same thing is true of the Harvard grads. Harvard grads have a reputation for being difficult to recruit. The reason for that is simple - Harvard grads have a lot of good options, so they aren't going to want to settle for just a 'regular' job. </p>
<p>Now don't get me wrong. I am not taking a shot at the Philippines specifically. This is just a general truism of 'regular' companies in ALL countries. Most companies in the world are 'regular' companies. These companies simply can't offer the kinds of opportunities that a Harvard (or MIT) graduate expects to get, so these companies don't even try to recruit them. </p>
<p>In fact, I'll give you a story. My father's friend owns a small business. He once tried to hire a Harvard grad. He failed In fact, he said that he would never recruit another Harvard grad ever again. The problem? The guy was asking for about double the salary that he was willing to pay. He said that the guy was indeed very good, but he just couldn't pay what the guy wanted. So he said that in the future, he would just stick with recruiting people out of the local no-name schools. At least they wouldn't demand high salaries. </p>
<p>Through my circle of friends, I asked around about whater happened to that Harvard guy. I found out that the guy ended up taking a Wall Street bulge- bracket investment banking job. Hence, it's no wonder that he was asking for a high salary. It's because he knew he had a very high-paying and prestigious competing offer. </p>
<p>The point I'm making is that just because a company doesn't priotize the grads from a certain school doesn't necessarily mean that they don't 'like' the grads. It often times means that they know they can't really compete for those grads, do they don't try. Hence, I can definitely see a company preferring to hire Berkeley grads over Harvard grads, especially if they have reason to believe that the Harvard grads are going to ask for too much money or too much power. The same can be said for any 2 schools. But popularity of a school within a company has nothing to do with the brand name of that school.</p>