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Comment by snarfy | Hacker News Reader

A graduate with good algorithmic skills will have a better chance of getting a job at amazon, google, or microsoft than one with real world experience with various technologies.

The belief is it is easier to train a computer scientist to be an engineer than the other way around.

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... but ultimately each candidate is weighed against the other candidates, so if it comes down to a recent college grad with good grasp of algorithms vs. another candidate with 5 years of work experience and a rusty working knowledge of algorithms as needed, usually the more experienced candidate will get the job. Algorithms are part of the screening process, but really the candidate with the most hands-on experience building using these same tools will be preferred. Each business has an immediate need to get work done, and so is only willing to invest so much in on-the-job training for new hires, which means the candidate needing the least training, and can also provide new insights based on experience, usually gets the job. Other factors weigh in too, such as college grads are cheaper and work harder then the salty old pros, so there's a trade off between experience vs. cost.

That's not quite true, at least in some companies. New college grads are typically applying for different roles than candidates with 5 (or more) years of experience.

Additionally, in fast-growing companies (such as Amazon and Google), it's usually the case that candidates are measured against a hiring bar and, if they exceed, they are presented with an offer, independent of other candidates. That is, there are more openings than can be easily filled, so any candidate who meets the bar can be hired, rather than being explicitly in competition with each other.

> Additionally, in fast-growing companies (such as Amazon and Google), it's usually the case that candidates are measured against a hiring bar and, if they exceed, they are presented with an offer, independent of other candidates.

We'll said. I think this is an important thing to note for any new grads looking to interview at these companies.

> The belief is it is easier to train a computer scientist to be an engineer than the other way around.

...and yet it still seems to take a lifetime of effort, discipline, and study.

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