[danenania]

I'd say degrees from prestigious universities can still help you even in software engineering, even after experience should take precedence.

My sense is that's mainly true at companies where the founders/execs have prestigious degrees, and therefore put a lot of stock in them.

I think it's (unfortunately) quite helpful to these companies too, since appearances matter a lot. Telling a non-technical investor, prospect, or journalist "all our engineers are from Stanford/MIT/etc." will often impress them regardless of whether any of those engineers have a clue (something a non-technical person has no way to really evaluate).

But unless it's a household name university, I think you're right that it no longer matters at all.

[hooande]

It's also worth noting that someone who graduated from Stanford/MIT/etc has a lot of good options, and it's a huge vote of confidence that they chose to work for your startup