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True this. I don't want to teach a high school graduate (or college grad) what interfaces and abstract classes are.. or basic good design of code. My job depend
by ldoughty 8y ago
True this. I don't want to teach a high school graduate (or college grad) what interfaces and abstract classes are.. or basic good design of code. My job depends on making progress, not training.
That said, my org supports up to 4 concurrent interns (typically we have 2-3 at any given point), and they could work for 4 months to 2+ years if they want, 15-40 hours/week -- adjustable for summers, etc... But they need to be at a stage where code review is going over application of theory, not telling them about when to use functions.
We lose a lot of interns after 3-5 months, but if they came in knowing the basics, we usually get something out of it (though the cost-benefit is usually negative). We want to support internships, though, so we keep doing them.
- bluedino 8y agoI've always found it challenging to give programming projets to someone who is only here for a few hours and days a week. Where with clerical tasks you can just have them get back to that pile of paper tomrorrow
- toast0 8y agoThe trick is to give them either very small tasks, so they can do them in a sitting, or let them work on independent, but speculative tasks -- so time to completion isn't a big deal. Ex: many years ago, we had an intern working on a Google Glass interface, it didn't work out, because Google Glass, but it was a cool project for him, and it prepped us for thinking about secondary displays like smartwatches.
- CodeCube 8y ago> My job depends on making progress, not training. You could say the same thing about a professional taking an apprentice in any trade ... and yet they still take apprentices