Like I say, intuitively it strikes me as an acceptable way to hire. If one grad contributes to 20 open source projects, and another one has never had an extracu

Like I say, intuitively it strikes me as an acceptable way to hire. If one grad contributes to 20 open source projects, and another one has never had an extracurricular project, you know who the better programmer is likely to be. But is this a factor in other careers? You're saying that you'd be more likely to hire a doctor who's paid for extra courses etc, well perhaps, but do doctors compete in this manner? And do graduate doctors compete in this manner or are they effectively assured of a stable career?