giraffe

>you couldn't pick it up that quickly. I don't see how this is them being shortsighted; it sounds like you just not delivering on the promise of your "fundamentals".

I never failed any take home assignments, so this isn't about me. I am speaking more generally and not about me personally. My point is fundamentals don't change, frameworks do.

Edit: For some reason I can't reply to your response of this question. But no problem. I see your point and I do agree with what you're saying. Thanks for clarifying.

My definition of fundamentals is more traditional CS algorithms and data structures, not "fundamentals" to a specific genre of the software development genre outside of traditional CS algorithms (ones start up companies or what have you are interested in). The fundamental taught in a traditional CS program may exclude the fundamentals that start ups use day-to-day and the fundamentals taught in traditional CS programs many be useless to startups.

So, while a student may have strong CS theory, they may lack industry specific "fundamentals" and companies may discriminate against those candidates because they lack that industry specific skills (that otherwise could easily be picked up).

I argue that traditional fundamentals as defined above are more important than industry specific tooling or frameworks, since the tooling or frameworks change but the core theory does not. I would like industries to not discriminate against graduates that come from a strong theory background but weak industry specific background, since these people should be able to pick up whatever tooling or frameworks on the job.

I think you missed my point. Companies I've seen don't care if you have fundamental knowledge of algorithms and data structures. They are testing you on specific frameworks via interview questions and take home projects. They are looking for industry experts in certain frameworks. These companies seem to equate CS programs with vocational schools or bootcamps and are only looking for coders that already know certain frameworks. Your comment justifies what I already believe and understand, but I am pointing out some companies seem to value bootcamp-tier knowledge more than fundamental knowledge and discriminate against graduates that focused heavily in theory but little in frameworks.

I agree with this. But unfortunately my experience is industry tends to not agree with us. They are like 'cool you know fundamentals, now do this take home project that requires x programming language with m framework'. This isn't too nice for new hires that learn just fundamentals and not the tooling and frameworks industry expects new grads to have. Industry seems to expect CS degrees to be vocational degrees.