I’ve been reading up on a couple of posts which said that people who graduated from UCs are more likely to get picked for job interviews than people who went to CSUs and a classmate of mine told me something like that as well. Is that actually true? Since the curriculum at CSUs is more practical and less theoretical than the UCs, isn’t that sort of practicality what employers want from a candidate? Employment specialists have told me that it ultimately doesn’t matter where a candidate goes to school as long as they have the relevant skills required for that job. But from an employer’s POV, would they pick someone who’s background looks more impressive? For example, let’s say an employer has two candidates for a position, one of them went to UC Berkeley while the other went San Jose State, which one is more likely to be chosen for an interview?
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First consider that there are 9 UC’s but 23 Cal States so the majority of college graduates would be coming from a Cal State vs. a UC at least in California.
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Yes, some employers can lean towards interview candidates from certain schools and school name could help get our foot in the door but in the end it will be the applicants job skill set that will get them hired. If the candidate from SJSU has a couple internships under their belt that fills an employers specific job needs, then that candidate may get the interview over the UCB applicant.
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Also on paper some applicants look impressive, but sometimes impressive on paper may not translate into impressive at the workplace.
You cannot generalize since each situation, each applicant and each job will be different. I would not pick a school based on name only.
Data point of 2: One son a CSU graduate and one son a UC graduate. Both were able to get interviews with no problems in their major field. Type of major and your job skills will usually trump the school name on your diploma. There are very few fields of study where name makes a huge difference.
Of course some employers prefer the nationally recognized UCs. But, I know several employers who prefer CSU grads because they have found grads from the top UCs to be entitled, stressed out and not well prepared to work. Your employment specialist (whatever that is) is right. Wherever you go to school, find ways to demonstrate you can be successful in a workplace (internships etc) - that’s what hiring managers want to see.
If you take a CS grad from say one of the top tiered UCs and a typical CSU grad, more than likely the UC grads will typically be going after jobs that will be higher pay and higher level than a CSU CS grad. But there are tons of jobs out there that are not as high level, maybe even the majority, that maybe pays say $50-75K a year that probably a CSU grad would be looked as as being a better fit. In many cases, a SJSU or CPSLO or SDSU CS grad would be looked at equally or higher as say a UCD or UCI grad. The CSU person may also have work experience already that a UC person might not have. So when you do the comparison, one must consider the type of job and the pay. (Sorry my thoughts are disjointed typing on a phone on a train).
It’s not about the school you go to. It’s the strength of your resume and how you can show that you’re a good fit for the job. That’s what employers are interested in. I overhauled my resume just a few months ago. I went from getting zero callbacks to interviewing with fortune 100 companies. I’m currently waiting to hear back on a job offer at a fortune 100 company. I never went anywhere prestigious either.
It’s just a game of chess where you use the strengths of each piece to your advantage. If you graduate from UCLA, that’s what you want to bring attention to. If you graduate from a less prestigious school, wear it proudly and throw in people skills too. Jobs are simply about fit, and most interview questions are about people skills. Get good at people skills and you shouldn’t have trouble finding a gob.