>>Eventually I was managing all the programmers and no one was asking what school anyone came from.
>>Many of my fellow vet grads from no-name U had similar experiences.
IT of course was different: at the start of the PC age, employers acknowledged that existing card/Fortran qualifications were of little value, while the pace of change continued to limit the value of college education. With vendors making constant changes, everybody had to learn on the job, so I agree that personal ability was a bigger consideration.
To this day there are people in this forum with well-paying roles, without any degree at all. Try that in a profession like law or medicine or engineering or ... ;-)
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
