

A Way to Show Employers What You Can Do Before You Get the Job - tyn
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/our-daily-bleg-a-way-to-show-employers-what-you-can-do-before-you-get-the-job/

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spydez
He wants companies to give students homework? It sounds like he just wants
companies to bypass college completely.

I mean, isn't that the professors' jobs? They design a course, assign work
(solo or in groups), give tests, and then give you a grade based on how well
you did. Then the companies look at your grades.

Also, I'm not sure what type of students he's met, but me and all the
engineering students I knew were, generally, not "quite motivated" to do
homework...

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physcab
Yeah I'm not sure if this could work. The "work for free" element has been
debated numerously on here.

But I do like how this idea addresses several critical flaws in the system
right now. It takes care of ranking applicants by GPA, it takes care of
weeding out the intelligent but unproductive crowd from the hard-working,
gets-stuff-done crowd, and it shows students that there is a viable path to
employment that is based on their current effort. This might eliminate
problems like cheating, which I've written about publicly:
<http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i24/24a03601.htm>

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hollerith
. . . which is behind a $10 paywall.

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physcab
I know, I can't help it. That's why I haven't posted the link to HN yet. But
it should be available for free in a week or so I think.

If you are at a University though, chances are that you can get it for free by
checking with your library.

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ahoyhere
Better to just have personal projects that do the same thing while also
demonstrating initiative.

People used to call this "being well-rounded."

People who wait to be assigned homework are not "go-getters."

