If someone put a degree from the University of Pennsylvania on their resume, would it influence your decision at all?
As opposed to what? For what?
Candidate reviews can be pretty holistic as well.
@PurpleTitan I mean for any job opening. I know experience is really important. I am just wondering in addition to all the other factors, would someone from UPenn be given an advantage over another qualified candidate who went to a school that was less selective
It really depends on the industry.
Also the hiring manager. Also the region. Also the position.
Candidates with work experience? No. I care about the experience.
Candidates without experience? It could hurt you if we thought you would assume that your degree meant you would move up faster or be given different projects. The interview would matter a lot.
I think your answers will depend on region. I am in the southwest where people are not as excited about the Ivy League.
No.
@gettingschooled So if I moved back to California, the Penn name would not help at all? I also do intend to do research with professors and complete some internships while at penn. Im just wondering because I worked so hard to get into Penn, I just want it to pay off! Also, do you think the Penn name would matter to employers in NYC or another northeastern city?
@romanigypsyeyes Is it because you have a bad experience with Penn employees or you just don’t care where someone went to school?
I don’t care where someone went to school. I care about what you did while you were there.
@romanigypsyeyes So in your opinion, would research experience or a relevant internship be more valuable? Also, lets say you encountered someone from Penn with a relatively low GPA, would you cut them some slack because of where they went to school?
Actually, although Penn is an excellent school and certainly very selective, it has fairly weak brand identification, certainly anywhere outside the northeast. Many people still confuse it with Penn State, or worse, assume it must be the “lesser” of two big state schools since Penn State is the one they’re heard of. There was even a petition circulated by some Penn students a few years ago calling on the university to change its name in order to overcome its persistent image problem.
Of course, many people do recognize Penn’s strong academics, but I wouldn’t expect employers to swoon over the Penn nameplate, even if they are familiar with it. Employers in most fields tend not to be as dazzled by a school’s “selectivity” as starry-eyed HS juniors and seniors are. When I’ve done hiring or worked on hiring committees, an Ivy degree was never an automatic leg up. It signals that you were a good student in HS and got good test scores, so there’s likely some native intelligence there, and you likely got a good undergraduate education. That puts you in the same boat with several million other people; it gets you a foot in the door. After that, it’s about individual characteristics, accomplishments, and skills. Some of my best hires have been Ivy grads, but then some of my best hires have been state flagship grads. But by the same token, I’ve known Ivy grads I wouldn’t hire in a million years, either because they lacked the requisite “people skills” or just basic common sense, or because they clearly thought so highly of themselves that I thought they were likely to create a toxic workplace environment.
@bclintonk I know I am just in high school, but I plan on applying for jobs at prestigious companies (like in the finance department at Google, Apple etc) I am not afraid of it not being recognized and I certainly wouldn’t work for anyone that couldn’t spot the difference between Penn and Penn State haha Maybe you’re perspective is different though. do you hire for a small or large company? And what business wouldn’t know wharton lol 
@bclintonk And by the way, those penn students who petitioned for the name to be changed had way too much time on their hands and should be focused on other things
It’s no Harvard.
As a hiring manager having worked for company of various sizes, from 3 to 3000, my answer is “No, absolutely not.”
I work in hardware (ASIC design) and software (EDA). For technical skills, based on the experience and the course list from the candidate’s resume, I compile a “lie detector” test consisting about 40 simple questions (no design questions). If the candidate is any good, he/she should be able to score 90% within 30 minutes. Then I have 5 more elaborate questions specifically tuned to the position the candidate is applying for.
Of course the hiring process involve much more than just technical skills.
I still remember a candidate with a BS from SJSU whom I hired over a candidate from UC Berkeley and in particular, a candidate with an MS from Univ. of Washington.
If I’m hiring engineers, I’d be more impressed by an engineering degree from GA Tech than UPenn. If the candidate had impressive job/internship experience, then that trumps any school, including MIT.
You stated you would not work for anybody that didn’t know the difference between Penn and Penn State.
You really ought to keep that to yourself if you actually want to be offered a job.
http://onwardstate.com/2010/09/15/penn-state-ranked-1-in-job-recruiting/
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