Most prestigious job/company in high-tech

[noimagination]

<p>

I don’t think it does, because it still does not speak to why the migration has to be asymmetric. I agree that an engineering degree is indeed more flexible than a B.Fin. degree, but at the end of the day, that doesn’t answer the question of why engineers feel that that must choose another career.

Look, there’s a population of high school graduates who could work in either finance or engineering. They don’t have enough experience to say which will ultimately be a better course. The logical decision would be to major in engineering. Why? Because it leaves both paths open. The migration is asymmetric because you have more engineering majors who are trying to keep their options open.

And here is where we clearly disagree, because I believe - and I think there is clear evidence to show - that the engineers from the top schools such as MIT and Stanford are highly technically innovative. MIT and Stanford are lodestars in two of the world’s leading innovation based startup ecosystems. {One must ask yourself - why did Silicon Valley or Technology Highway not sprout up around Purdue or A&M?}

Forbes has attempted to identify the most innovative cities:
[America’s</a> Most Innovative Cities - Forbes.com](<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/24/patents-funding-jobs-technology-innovative-cities.html]America’s”>America's Most Innovative Cities)</p>

<p>Austin, TX has a strong innovative culture built around UT. The Research Triangle in NC has multiple universities, but NC State is by far the largest engineering feeder. Seattle, WA benefits greatly from the presence of Udub. Madison, WI is an up-and-coming innovation center built around UW. And Silicon Valley draws from Berkeley as well as Stanford. I could go on and on with this list.

Sociological constructs such as prestige and status, once embedded, are extraordinarily difficult and slow to change. Like I said before, venture capitalist assessing a business plan written by somebody at MIT and another written by somebody at Purdue, if he has to pick one, is probably going to pick the former. That’s not going to change anytime soon, probably not in our lifetimes.

I’m still not sure what you’re advocating. But - as I said before - it surely isn’t any more realistic than simply reforming the VC system. So I think that approach makes even more sense as it solves this problem directly.</p>