How much of the college education premium is payoff to useful human capital?

[Asher]

I don't believe you can teach people and communication skills.

I certainly didn't take the course on it and I'm all kinds of awesome with both. In my lifetime I've got a 66.7% success rating with interviews. I've only ever had 6 real interviews in my life, and I got 4 of those jobs. I was also a smooth-talking consultant for a few years and a year after starting at that firm I became a team-lead of a 5-man team, and everyone there had worked longer than I had.

[KrazyHorse]

Hate to tell you this, rah, but I can and do turn on the charm in a professional setting.

Poly is my vacation.

[KrazyHorse]

I have a 100% success rate for interviews.

[Japher]

I don't believe you can teach people and communication skills.

I certainly didn't take the course on it and I'm all kinds of awesome with both

[KrazyHorse]

Also, again at the thought that rah needed to spend 4 years writing BS essays in order to learn how to interact with people.

I learned to do that by drinking and hanging out at parties.

[Asher]

You laugh because it is amusing, but you should see me in a corporate setting.

It's like me on Poly in terms of my speed and wit, but instead of venomous insults it's a smile and a pat on the back. Simple formula, massive success.

[Japher]

Perhaps the reason you (in general) have a high success rate in interviewing for a job is that you are targeting jobs below your worth?

Just a thought.

Maybe it's not the best indicator.

[Asher]

I have a 100% success rate for interviews.

One of the jobs I didn't get was my 1st year uni summer job for sales at CompuSmart. They asked me to explain the difference between two systems: Pentium 4 system and an Athlon system. The P4 system was significantly more expensive but not any faster. I mentioned that, because I refuse to lie to sell systems when I don't even get commission, and I don't think they liked it.

[rah]

I'm sure you are better in a professional setting or you wouldn't have one.

I was chosen to manage because of my skills in those areas.
I'm not going to heavily defend a poli-sci degree since I was just taking it thinking I was going the law school route. But a general degree can help some with their people skills so they're not as totally worthless as you and Asher preach. For some, like myself, it probably helped my career.

[Asher]

Perhaps the reason you (in general) have a high success rate in interviewing for a job is that you are targeting jobs below your worth?

Just a thought.

Maybe it's not the best indicator.

I really, really don't think so. I certainly make more money than all of my contemporaries and have more responsibilities.

They're just not used to geeks who know their **** and can talk.

[Asher]

I had to explain polygonal search and some basic linear algebra and geometry to a bunch of French-Canadian Liberal Arts majors in a meeting yesterday, AND I DIDN'T EVEN THROW ONE INSULT.

[rah]

Also, again at the thought that rah needed to spend 4 years writing BS essays in order to learn how to interact with people.

I learned to do that by drinking and hanging out at parties.

I've already claimed that I demonstrated those skills prior, I was just pointing out that a more general education allows you to hone those skills a bit. I'd also bet that you have problems hiding your arrogance even in professional settings.

[Asher]

One of them tried to argue with me that it's really difficult to determine whether a point is within a defined circle on a grid. He was talking about Pi and **** like it was a big deal.

10 minutes to explain that all I need to do is calculate the distance from the centroid and compare it to the radius. RESTRAINT. No insults, even though he was a Frog.

[KrazyHorse]

Are you sure that wasn't just a nightmare you had?

[KrazyHorse]

I've already claimed that I demonstrated those skills prior, I was just pointing out that a more general education allows you to hone those skills a bit. I'd also bet that you have problems hiding your arrogance even in professional settings.

Nope. It helps that I ham it up a bit here.