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> Apart from getting a candidate to actually pump out some code, even trivially, we don't really have a way to de-facto verify that the person says they can do
by _pmf_ 9y ago
> Apart from getting a candidate to actually pump out some code, even trivially, we don't really have a way to de-facto verify that the person says they can do what they say they can do, short of a personal reference from someone, say, in the company already that knows and has worked with the person in the past.
How do hospitals make sure that their surgeons can do surgery without having them do surgery? Do they have some magic eightball?
- Clubber 9y agoIf it's anything like white boarding, then they would bring in a game of operation and have the surgeons pull out all the pieces. If the buzzer goes off, well they just aren't good surgeons.
- _pmf_ 9y agoVery apt. But I'd really like to know why a medical degree means "can perform real medical work" while we're OK with a CS degree meaning "well, she has successfully completed the degree requirements, but hey, actual software development is not part of it".
- Clubber 9y agoUnless things have changed drastically in the last 20+ years, CS degrees involve plenty of software development. I remember having to build a calculator in Pascal using queues in CS1. We'd have to code all the classic algorithms (Merge sorts, traveling salesman, shortest path, etc).
- around_here 9y agoSurgeons do different things. However, CS is close to something else: Economics. People spend 4+ years learning about economics, but don't know shit about how it really works. They found a solution for that: business schools. CS at a University versus CS at a technical college.
- jonhendry18 9y agoHow do salespeople get interviewed? If one claims "I sold X million dollars worth of widgets more than the rest of the sales staff combined" I doubt you'd be able to confirm that easily. Or what about non-technical middle management? Or HR?