

Should job seeking programmers understand object oriented programming? - andrewstuart
http://www.supercoders.com.au/blog/shouldcodersknowoo.shtml

======
kirinan
I work in the enterprise where for the most part people I interview can't
explain things like polymorphism, which is sad. I once interviewed a fellow
with his PhD in Comp Sci who couldn't explain simple theory based things such
as graphs or know when to apply graphs. I agree that these kind of questions
are important on phone interviews people it weeds out the people who aren't
very good without having to waste my time to ask these kinds of questions.
When I interview people, I want to be more concerned with the persons problem
solving skills than their ability to trivially memorize words and definitions.

I must state though that these concepts are important to solving the problem
correctly. If I give you a problem to solve, its important to solve it, but it
is important to solve it elegantly (I know that sometimes this is not
possible). If I have refactor your code every time you check it in, not only
are you wasting your time, you are wasting my time which means things aren't
getting done. To their point, these concepts are very important, however hey
aren't the most important thing to look for in people. I'd rather have someone
that could solve problems kinda well, who was friendly than someone who can't
solve problems but has a large computer science vocabulary.

~~~
andrewstuart
If someone can memorize the words and definitions of OO concepts then they are
at least part of the way to actually understanding the concepts.

Nothing wrong with memorization if it is a step towards comprehension.

~~~
kirinan
To me, it's less about the actual memorization and more about the effort shown
to actual memorize them. My job isn't hard to do (trust me), its not designing
anything complicated, so if you show effort and willingness to learn things
(or at least long enough to get the job done), for the most part that is
satisfactory.

~~~
andrewstuart
Agreed. The disappointing thing is that so few people make the effort at all
to learn.

