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rwallace comments on Overcoming the negative signal of not attending college. - Less Wrong
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I think we all know that this would send negative signals, whatever the reason why.
How about this for a possible variant: Six months doing actual useful work. In my own field, this could consist of clearing some to-do list items for an open source software project. Perhaps experts in other intellectual domains could suggest similar tasks.
This would have the following advantages:
Much better general signaling properties. (Again, regardless of the reasons why, I think we all know that this would be the case.)
You'd learn something in the process. (College isn't only about signaling, after all.)
You'd get to demonstrate relevant skills as well as the ability to put in long hours; the quality of your work could be assessed.
And of course, actual useful work would get done.
I'm not familiar with the industry, so please excuse me if this is a silly questions, but dosen't work on open source projects already help you with signalling competence? And if it dosen't, why is this so? Are there cases of autodidacts who marshal up a impressive enough portfolio of such contributions that they can get hired into entry positions (and later advanced based on their achievements there) without a degree?