My experience with big tech has been the polar opposite - nobody has ever cared and I've never tried to hide it either. Which one was it if you don't mind me asking?

I'm a drop out (didn't finish BSc) from a no name Northern European university and I've worked at or gotten offers from:

- Meta

- Amazon

- Google

- Microsoft

- Uber

- xAI

+ some unicorns that compete with FAANG+ locally.

I didn't include some others that have reached out for interviews which I declined at the time. The lack of a degree has literally never come up for me.

Once you have a relevant work history, a degree matters much less. It still does to some employers, however, for whom it's a simple filter on applicants: No degree? Resume into the bin.

It is true, and it is much easier to get that first relevant work experience when you have a big degree. Not impossible without one, just much harder.

It was Meta but twas a long time ago, when they were known as Facebook.

It seems to be a US role thing in my experience.

Hiring is still a pretty non-uniform thing despite attempts to make it less so - I'm sure there are some teams and orgs at all these large companies that do it well, and some that do it les well. I think it is pretty well accepted that university brand is not a good signal, but it is an easy signal and if the folks in the hiring process are a bit lazy and pressed for time, a bit overwhelmed by the number of inbound candidates, or don't really know how to evaluate for the role competencies, I think it's a tool that is still reached for today.

In a way, I think the hiring process at second-tier (not FAANG) companies is actually better because you have to "moneyball" a little bit - you know that you're going to lose the most-credentialed people to other companies that can beat you dollar for dollar, so you actually have to think a little more deeply about what a role really needs to find the right person.

In which European city is this true? I can't think of any. Certainly not London/Paris/Amsterdam/Munich/Warsaw.

For comparison, Amsterdam's price per square meter for apartments is some 30% higher than in Seattle and my big tech company that offers total compensation around $500k/yr for L5 in Seattle pays low $200s (converted to USD) in Amsterdam. The only colleagues I know who live in a single family home within reasonable biking distance are late career (L6/L7) American expats.

In any European city, that has a decent tech job market, owning a house (even a small one by American standards) in walking/biking distance of the office means you're rich rich.