[zeta0134]

Speak for yourself. My current career in systems administration, a pleasant improvement over my retail start during college, was gained through my network of college friends. I don't keep in touch with them often, but we went to the same programming classes, and know each other's relative strengths. One of my buddies took me to lunch with his friends that work here, and one thing led to another. I still had to apply and go through the technical screening just like anyone else, but just like that I had an "in" and was able to perform a class jump.

Is my experience anecdotal? Absolutely! I didn't even finish my degree, which makes this a weird exception story. On paper, college got me nothing, but in reality, the network of contacts and the life experiences I earned were far more useful to me than the degree I never obtained.