Subj : Re: Software Job Market Myths To : comp.programming,comp.software-eng From : blmblm Date : Mon Aug 15 2005 04:14 pm In article , Richard Heathfield wrote: >blmblm@myrealbox.com wrote: > >> In article , >> Richard Heathfield wrote: >> >> [ snip ] >> >>>As a matter of fact, I think they are more or less irrelevant. I've had to >>>teach CS graduates how to write programs because they were hired on the >>>false assumption that anyone with a CS degree would know this. And one of >>>the most clueless programmers I ever talked to was a Microsoft employee. >>>(If you think about it, that isn't actually an MS-bashing statement!) >> >> How so? didn't someone at MS hire the clueless one? something I'm >> not getting here. > >Well, yes, someone at MS screwed up in this case, and I really mean screwed >up because this guy was just amazingly clueless - but I wasn't trying to >crit them for hiring /one/ duff bunny. > >My point was more that those who are impressed by the names of a candidate's >previous companies are almost sure to be impressed by Microsoft. So it was >actually a - well, not exactly a compliment, but a recognition that MS is a >big name in the IT world, and that many people consider MS experience to be >valuable, a priori. And so it might be - or so it might not be. I simply >don't think a company name on a CV is as important as the skills of the >individual you are thinking of hiring. Thanks for clarifying. Your last sentence is probably the key point, and very valid, but I would never have inferred that from the previous post. >> [ snip rest of process for deciding whom to hire ] >> >> This sounds sensible, but it seems to me that it would screen out >> people who don't "test well", i.e., people who aren't very good at >> demonstrating their abilities under a particular kind of pressure >> that doesn't seem entirely relevant to what you'd want them to do >> on the job. Or is that not a concern? > >It is my >>>opinion<<< that people who really know what they're doing will >always "test well". I recognise that other people, perhaps you, may hold a >different opinion. In which case, when you hire me, don't put me in charge >of recruitment! :-) Interesting. I don't know that I have an opinion one way or another. I've met students who claim not to "test well", which is why I wrote what I did (and why, in teaching CS classes, I try to provide ways other than exams by which students can demonstrate that they've learned something). Now that I think about it, though, I'm not sure I can think of an example of someone who in other contexts seemed to really know what he/she was doing but didn't test well. Hm! [ snip ] -- | B. L. Massingill | ObDisclaimer: I don't speak for my employers; they return the favor. .