<p>OP, I can answer this question.</p>
<p>The correct answer is: It does and doesn’t matter, it all depends upon how you look at it. The ‘unknown school’ part doesn’t matter as long as they are accredited and are recognized, that is all businesses care about, that part is what is vital. Prestigious schools attract the best and the brightest, and obviously the biggest companies want to hire the best and the brightest, so they naturally recruit at these institutions. The companies that you want to work for are extremely hard to break into and extremely competitive. So any route that you can take to break into these companies, networking, school job fairs, exc, will better your chances. </p>
<p>These companies pay premium for your skills, and seeing how the whole point of getting a ‘degree’ is to learn a skill that will garnish you a wage, unless you are one of the few that cares about pursuit of higher knowledge, you pretty much want to make as much wage that your skills are worth. As you trickle down the totem pole of companies, these companies may not pay you what you ‘feel’ like you are worth. An example, a MBA from Harvard commands a nice triple digit salary. Smaller companies will not even attempt to hire someone like this, because to be blunt, they cannot afford it. On the opposite side, you get a MBA from a unknown college, you will have to take whatever job you can find. Even if that job is paying you not enough of what you are worth. </p>
<p>Then other factors come into play like how well you market yourself, your experience, the actual job field, exc. The more experience you gain, the less your degree matters. The less experience you have, the more your degree matters. The more in demand your skill is needed, the less prestige matters. To use a MBA again as a example, so many people have one now a days, that to be blunt, it really doesn’t mean anything anymore when it comes to ‘being assured a job’. Where if you have a doctors dentist degree, you know pretty much 100% you will have no problem finding a job regardless of the school.</p>
<p>This situation below might better explain what I am talking about:</p>
<p>Brand new graduate from MIT:
Brand new graduate from unknown school: </p>
<p>MIT did okay in school, new graduate #2 did really good. The MIT will still beat out the unknown simply because of the prestige of the school. Other factors come into play like the personality of the two, how much the company is looking to spend, and how much the individuals are looking to attain, exc. (More established companies tend to post what they are paying salary wise and pay everyone the same when they hire. Smaller companies like to negotiate and get you for cheap. The only negotiations that are done for higher up companies revolves around stock, benefit packages, bonuses, exc, unless there is a dispute in the salary based upon experience. )</p>
<p>Now same example as above, except now:
MIT has 10 years of experience
Unknown has 10 years of experience </p>
<p>Factors are more weighed towards the experience, and the degree doesn’t really play a role as much. As long as both candidates meet the basic ‘education requirements’ it will come down to experience, achievements, exc, and the overall personality of the person.</p>
<p>Hope that helped. =}</p>