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I recently interviewed a lot of fresh grads to hire on as junior developers. I was taken aback a few times. I had a candidate with a “computer science” degree

I recently interviewed a lot of fresh grads to hire on as junior developers. I was taken aback a few times. I had a candidate with a “computer science” degree that didn’t know what a linked list is. The general trend was that basic data structures are abstract concepts, which probably isn’t super unusual with most modern languages as you shouldn’t need to implement a hash table or tree. I guess it was the “computer science” vs “programming” or “software development” in the degree name. Algorithmic complexity was also abstract. Formal verification or algorithmic profs? It was like I asked a question in a foreign language. These are grads from “state universities” My take away is that a lot of universities are pinched between being vocational schools and “University” The for profit places at least do away with the idea that they aren’t vocational schools, it’s all about a job. It seems like “college” or “university” should maybe be used more sparingly in their names. That might lower the value prop a little but theyre starting to puss in everybody’s soup.

infinite8s 8y ago
So what did they know? How to program in Java or python?
not_real_acct 8y ago
> I recently interviewed a lot of fresh grads to hire on as junior developers. I was taken aback a few times. I had a candidate with a “computer science” degree that didn’t know what a linked list is. This was something that infuriated me about college. We were taught about linked lists, and how CPU registers work at the physical level, and two or three languages that nobody uses. And then I went out looking for a job and nobody gives a shit about this. I've been in the industry for decades and I've never had any use for a linked list.
- chrisbennet 8y ago
  You should never need to write one but I think it is still good to learn it. I for one, have never used a hash table or regex (in 30 years!) but I’m sure some developers use them all the time.
astura 8y ago
There's a lot of computer science programs that are, quite frankly, very sub par. "You didn't learn this in college?" Is something I've been saying a lot to the new grads I've been mentoring lately. Mostly state schools in my case as well. Any college can teach a couple basic programming classes and call it a computer science education, I guess. To avoid that I didn't even consider going to a non-ABET accredited school.

infinite8s 8y ago

So what did they know? How to program in Java or python?

not_real_acct 8y ago

> I recently interviewed a lot of fresh grads to hire on as junior developers. I was taken aback a few times. I had a candidate with a “computer science” degree that didn’t know what a linked list is. This was something that infuriated me about college. We were taught about linked lists, and how CPU registers work at the physical level, and two or three languages that nobody uses. And then I went out looking for a job and nobody gives a shit about this. I've been in the industry for decades and I've never had any use for a linked list.

chrisbennet 8y ago
You should never need to write one but I think it is still good to learn it. I for one, have never used a hash table or regex (in 30 years!) but I’m sure some developers use them all the time.

astura 8y ago

There's a lot of computer science programs that are, quite frankly, very sub par. "You didn't learn this in college?" Is something I've been saying a lot to the new grads I've been mentoring lately. Mostly state schools in my case as well. Any college can teach a couple basic programming classes and call it a computer science education, I guess. To avoid that I didn't even consider going to a non-ABET accredited school.