4 ms·

According to Purdue, the first computer science department in the US was established there in 1962, so of course in 1960 IBM wasn't that selective - they couldn

• thaumasiotes 7y ago
  Did anything in the material I quoted, or in the remainder of either article, refer to CS degrees or CS graduates?
  • perl4ever 7y ago
    It's an example of conventional attributes which didn't exist then because the whole field was unformed. It seems like that would inhibit specialized aptitude tests - if you're hiring math or whatever majors back then (not that it doesn't happen today) you can't ask them about linked lists or sorting algorithms. Not to mention, a vast number of people who could be good programmers wouldn't have had access to a computer before a first programming job, even if they had a college degree. Today it's much safer to assume that if someone is any good, they will have been exposed.
    • thaumasiotes 7y ago
      But nobody's talking about interviews that ask for conventionalized CS material. The point is that the interview questions are more difficult. They aren't especially more computer-focused.
      • perl4ever 7y ago
        I wasn't asked more difficult questions in 2007, when I got my first programming job. Several years on, we had some discussions about what kind of questions to ask candidates. One place I applied to more recently had a flowchart reading test that must have been from the punched card era. So I don't concede the point, anyway. But, the examples above definitely do compare more and less computer focused things.