Why I’m Not Looking to Hire Computer-Science Majors | Hacker News Reader

Why I’m Not Looking to Hire Computer-Science Majors

wsj.com

Just the usual "omg we need someone for angular/jboss2.34/.net4.3/... We don't care about compilers, logic, theory bla.

Because development in the industry is becoming as superficial as tinder in dating. Just riding the current hype train.

So we could just throw all our background knowledge out of the window and just teach placing buttons and form fields in angular hybrid apps, right?

I also find the trend of everyone having to do side projects on github pretty weird. No one of my professional friends in other fields would do something like that. Because you might think that what you do professionally is worth more than your hobby stuff. Personally, after a typical work day, in the evening my back and my eyes hurt and I also want to enjoy family, dog, nature or just sleep. I do read a lot of technical stuff or watch coursera or udacity. But even more t-rexing?

I agree. As the author says, the development scene is always changing. Maybe that's a reason to teach generic concept skills and concepts instead of current techology.

iOS and android development may be totally diffrent in 5 years, for example.

I come to this as a self-taught programmer and I think like most Ford-Chevy arguments the reality is somewhere in between. After working as a professional software developer for eight years on desktop apps, web apps, and mobile apps, I can see there are places where having a foundation in computer science could absolutely improve quality of my work, mainly algorithms and data structures, but also higher level subjects like OS and database architecture, security...etc.

And I also think CompSci folks would do well to work on a personal software project on nights and weekends and see it through to release and get actual people to use what you wrote. There's so much valuable experience that comes from that process that can never be learned in a classroom, or even from most jobs to be honest.

I think the CompSci folks that are dissatisfied with their employer and are comfortable with their skills are already doing stuff on the side. Today, sharpening your skills & earning extra $$$ through side projects is a no brainer. The wealth of online how-to articles and distribution channels has lowered the barriers to entry.

Of course if one is well looked after their employer financially and personally then there is really no need to do this. Makes you wonder why so many people out there are dissatisfied with their employers eh ;-)

College isn't supposed to teach young developers skills. It's supposed to teach them how to acquire skills. You're supposed to teach them skills.

That is the status quo. Is it a good system design? It seems to result in poor performance (hard for smaller employers to hire fresh college grads, since they haven't built an internal finishing school) and shoddy, duplicated effort (every major employer eventually constructs an ad-hoc finishing school for college grads).

If one cannot pay market rate for developers maybe the startup is not viable.

What an awful article. "colleges doing such a rotten job of teaching them skills."? right, this is why Google and Facebook nick those with a Computer Science degree and pay them bucket loads of money. Try getting into those companies without a degree lol

The author goes on complaining that iPhone and Android development is missing in computer science departments. Right, problems are solved using an app rolls eyes. Computer Science is "Foundations". Language and Tools change daily but foundations rarely.. think algorithms, data structures etc.. this is what these degrees teach and how to apply them to solve problems. Yes it's fkin hard and takes years of practice to be good at it. But this is what makes Computer Science/Engineering majors a hot commodity!

This guy has just got daddy issues: his father is a CS prof at Yale.

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gelernter, mention of his son as this guy: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014240529702038331045770721...)

Is it me or is that signup/premium only content? :s

If you Google(/Bing) the title and click on the wsj link from the search results, you can circumvent the paywall. I'd give a link, but I'm not sure that's okay (also, the procedure is just tedious, not complicated).

WSJ has the worst website on the Internet.

Fetched the text with Inoreader (RSS app) and it worked fine.

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