> A CS student who knows Java (4+ years of experience) is going to turn out very different programs from a 20 year veteran of Erlang who is just learning Java.

> A CS student who knows Java (4+ years of experience) is going to turn out very different programs from a 20 year veteran of Erlang who is just learning Java. Perhaps. But I would take contention with a CS student claiming 4+ years "experience" with Java unless they were referring to something outside of class work. When filling a position though, you're usually not comparing "was handed my degree yesterday" candidates with 20 year veterans. . . they're demanding much different compensation and degrees of responsibility. A more apt comparison of my point would be a 20 year veteran of of Erlang who says "oh, yeah, I can pick Java up. Never seen it, but it'll just take me a couple of weeks." is not, in any way, going to produce the same quality code as a 20 year veteran of Java of relatively comparable experience and general skill.