

Sorry, College Grads, I Probably Won't Hire You - kirillzubovsky
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323744604578470900844821388.html

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TheCoelacanth
> Consider this example: Suppose you're sitting in a meeting with clients, and
> someone asks you how long a certain digital project is slated to take.
> Unless you understand the fundamentals of what engineers and programmers do,
> unless you're familiar enough with the principles and machinations of coding
> to know how the back end of the business works, any answer you give is a
> guess and therefore probably wrong.

Even when you do understand the fundamentals of what engineers and programmers
do, any answer is still usually a guess and probably wrong.

~~~
ikailan
Agree with your comment.

I wonder if this is what non-programmers think the advantages of understanding
programming are? Looks like the author has never actually held a real
programming job (<http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kirk-mcdonald/0/4/824>).

Learning programming skills does have some benefits in learning problem
solving. I'll never tell someone NOT to dabble in code, but I don't think the
benefits are as pronounced as this article is making it sound to self-teach a
tiny bit of programming. There's an earlier comment that states that it might
hurt more to know a little; I can see where that viewpoint is coming from.

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johngalt
Yet another article exhorting everyone to 'learn to code'. Which misses the
mark. It's true that there are a large amount of tech jobs. It's also rare
that people, who would otherwise be uninterested in technology, become useful
programmers. If there was a suddenly an overwhelming demand for workers who
could do calculus all day, that doesn't mean a larger contingent of people
would be suited that that type of work. Additionally employers are discovering
that the old trope about 'all kids know computers these days' was an unfounded
assumption. Sure 'they all grew up with the internet', but people grew up
around cars and there are plenty of terrible drivers.

The real issue (which the author touches on) is that new graduates often don't
have any inherently valuable skills at anything. If you can solve expensive
problems demonstrably, you'll do fine even if you don't know python.

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geebee
Sorry, Kirk, but you probably won't be hiring me.

The RAND institute determined that Americans are avoiding PhD degrees in
science and engineering because other professions pay better, offer more job
security, and have vastly lower attrition rates[1].

I'll be happy to prescribe you antibiotics, straighten your kid's teeth, or
send you a threatening letter that you violated my patent on interpreting data
obtained through a web service, though, and I'll extort a lot more money out
of you that way than you ever would have paid me to write code.

\- Elite American College Grad

[1] <http://www.rand.org/pubs/issue_papers/IP241.html>

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gregjor
A little bit of knowledge is maybe worse than not knowing at all. I'd rather
have someone just say "I don't know" than try to make a decision based on a
few weeks playing with Python tutorials. Dabbling a bit in a couple of
languages like this article suggests is about as far from programming, or
understanding software development, as playing with toy cars is from Formula 1
racing or designing engines.

All of these "you must learn to code" articles are encouraging a dilettantism
that is going to plague serious programmers. Why aren't we telling college
students to learn just a little genetic engineering so they can find jobs in
the biomedical industry?

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cafard
Badly written ("the machinations of coding"?) and not well thought out.

"... a system that has eight times as many high-school football teams as high
schools that teach advanced placement computer-science classes."

Yes, but high school football is taken seriously. A coach who taught football
the way some teachers teach AP computer science would be heading for an 0-10
season and a firing. This sounds flippant, but the underlying point is dead
serious: you cannot judge a school by its published curriculum, without either
observing the work done or talking to the persons who have gone through the
school.

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rangermike
The guy who wrote this article is absolutely clueless. Does he really think
you can understand the fundamentals of computer science by taking a few
courses or reading a few book? This is absolute nonsense!

It takes years of hard work and studying just to understand the fundamentals
of computer science, and then lots of experience to become a competent
software engineer.

The main reason there is so much terrible software is because there are too
many incompetent software developers that don't know the first thing about
crafting well designed software.

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gregjor
rebuttal: Sorry, Digital Ad Exec, I Probably Don’t Want To Work For You

<http://typicalprogrammer.com/?p=175>

