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I have a friend who didn't know how to code in C++ (although he graudated from CS major) but still got into samsung as a developer, got trained how to write cod

I have a friend who didn't know how to code in C++ (although he graudated from CS major) but still got into samsung as a developer, got trained how to write code there. It's a typical conglomerate thing in south korea though. The main strategy here is to assetize(they call them selves as samsung family member) their in-house trained developer. He's going to spend rest of his life there as a samsung developer, enjoying social prestige as a 'samsung employee'. I recently heard they are now considering to move their code base from svn to git, and write some test code to stabilize the firmware that goes into the ssd products. I don't think I can explain in short how a mediocre developer who never actually coded something into reality got a degree, and got a job in allegedly the biggest company in south korea... All I can say it is a complex korean thing that requires some cultural understanding of our society.

coconut_crab 7y ago
I work for a Japanese companies, and more than half of the developers here have non-IT backgrounds like marketing, sales, design etc... All of them started with scala from zero and 2~3 years later they start talking about monad, final tagless or writing concurrency helper libraries... Our brain is quite malleable so having non IT background doesn't prevent you to be a good developer.
logicchains 7y ago
>I recently heard they are now considering to move their code base from svn to git, and write some test code to stabilize the firmware that goes into the ssd products. >I don't think I can explain in short how a mediocre developer who never actually coded something into reality got a degree, and got a job in allegedly the biggest company in south korea... All I can say it is a complex korean thing that requires some cultural understanding of our society. Are you sure it's a Korean thing, and not just a hardware-company thing? Even in the west, hardware companies are notorious for having terrible software development practices / UX. Perhaps the sole exception is Apple, and this has allowed them to dominate (compare iOS to the crapware OEMs like Samsung bundle with phones).
- totorovirus 7y ago
  Do apple hire CS majors who never did a project in any language? Probably not..
  - Der_Einzige 7y ago
    Intel sure does - and they're more of a hardware company than Apple is...
    - strategarius 7y ago
      However, probably their candidates have to show some projects with electronics and FPGA. Again, Intel has lots of "pure software" development, for example their own compiler, profiler, debugger and rest of similar tools, bundled into IDE.
  - ChuckNorris89 7y ago
    Are you saying that in Korea one can be a CS major and have never done a single SW project in any language? Sorry, I find that hard to believe.
    - totorovirus 7y ago
      In a mediocre university you learn how to run a VMware virtual machine in OS class and that's it.
    - totorovirus 7y ago
      One of my friend didn't submit his project for Operating System course, still got an A-. He doesn't know anything about seg fault handling or process scheduling. How did he get an A-? Because companies are looking for good GPAs rather than what actually the candidate knows. Students complain if they get low grades because it may screw up his career. Since universities are competing for hire rate after graduation (unemployment is serious in south korea) they press professors to give them good grades as possible.
- strategarius 7y ago
watwut 7y ago
So, basically the company hired complete junior, was willing to train him and somehow that is bad thing as big companies should hire only already learned people?
- webkike 7y ago
  I’m also extremely confused by the parent comment... why was him not knowing C++ relevant? He had a CS degree so he’s surely at least somewhat qualified.
  - watwut 7y ago
    Some people think you need to have experience in that exact language or framework to be hireable. I would not expect that especially among fresh graduates, but that is me.
- reinkaos 7y ago
  What I read between the lines here is that the company hired someone with no experience and gave them more responsibility than they should have at the beginning of their careers.
  - searchableguy 7y ago
    I feel like this is somehow related to parasite.
    - watwut 7y ago
      None of the characters was incapable. All of them were good at what they were hired to - driver, housekeeper, tutor, art tutor. They were also hardworking at their jobs. The rich dude was also good in his job (and caring to his family) and worst you can say about rich mom is that she was naive. I dont think you understood the movie.
- totorovirus 7y ago
  They don't ask technical questions or anything related to CS...
ChrisRR 7y ago
If he didn't know how to write C++ but has a CS degree then presumably he knows another language like java. Many language features are interchangeable so it sets you up for picking up a new language fairly quickly
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
rasz 6y ago
This is the exact history of Tetsuya Iida, Sony programmer responsible for PS2 software compatibility layer. "I had no real electrical engineering skills to speak of whatsoever and I didn’t even know how to boot up Windows 3.1, let alone how to write any programs. Even now, I can’t help but wonder what people at Sony saw in me when they decided to hire me. Luckily, I got the chance to learn how to program computers thanks to a training program that the company ran. " https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22501566 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22501566 https://medium.com/@freelansations/the-story-of-the-ps2s-backwards-compatibility-from-the-engineer-who-built-it-ec39cf5a0353 https://medium.com/@freelansations/the-story-of-the-ps2s-bac... TLDR: this seems to be standard Asian hiring practice.
- fomine3 6y ago
  At least, It's very common in Japan.

coconut_crab 7y ago

I work for a Japanese companies, and more than half of the developers here have non-IT backgrounds like marketing, sales, design etc... All of them started with scala from zero and 2~3 years later they start talking about monad, final tagless or writing concurrency helper libraries... Our brain is quite malleable so having non IT background doesn't prevent you to be a good developer.

logicchains 7y ago

>I recently heard they are now considering to move their code base from svn to git, and write some test code to stabilize the firmware that goes into the ssd products. >I don't think I can explain in short how a mediocre developer who never actually coded something into reality got a degree, and got a job in allegedly the biggest company in south korea... All I can say it is a complex korean thing that requires some cultural understanding of our society. Are you sure it's a Korean thing, and not just a hardware-company thing? Even in the west, hardware companies are notorious for having terrible software development practices / UX. Perhaps the sole exception is Apple, and this has allowed them to dominate (compare iOS to the crapware OEMs like Samsung bundle with phones).

totorovirus 7y ago
Do apple hire CS majors who never did a project in any language? Probably not..
- Der_Einzige 7y ago
  Intel sure does - and they're more of a hardware company than Apple is...
  - strategarius 7y ago
    However, probably their candidates have to show some projects with electronics and FPGA. Again, Intel has lots of "pure software" development, for example their own compiler, profiler, debugger and rest of similar tools, bundled into IDE.
- ChuckNorris89 7y ago
  Are you saying that in Korea one can be a CS major and have never done a single SW project in any language? Sorry, I find that hard to believe.
  - totorovirus 7y ago
    In a mediocre university you learn how to run a VMware virtual machine in OS class and that's it.
  - totorovirus 7y ago
    One of my friend didn't submit his project for Operating System course, still got an A-. He doesn't know anything about seg fault handling or process scheduling. How did he get an A-? Because companies are looking for good GPAs rather than what actually the candidate knows. Students complain if they get low grades because it may screw up his career. Since universities are competing for hire rate after graduation (unemployment is serious in south korea) they press professors to give them good grades as possible.
strategarius 7y ago

watwut 7y ago

So, basically the company hired complete junior, was willing to train him and somehow that is bad thing as big companies should hire only already learned people?

webkike 7y ago
I’m also extremely confused by the parent comment... why was him not knowing C++ relevant? He had a CS degree so he’s surely at least somewhat qualified.
- watwut 7y ago
  Some people think you need to have experience in that exact language or framework to be hireable. I would not expect that especially among fresh graduates, but that is me.
reinkaos 7y ago
What I read between the lines here is that the company hired someone with no experience and gave them more responsibility than they should have at the beginning of their careers.
- searchableguy 7y ago
  I feel like this is somehow related to parasite.
  - watwut 7y ago
    None of the characters was incapable. All of them were good at what they were hired to - driver, housekeeper, tutor, art tutor. They were also hardworking at their jobs. The rich dude was also good in his job (and caring to his family) and worst you can say about rich mom is that she was naive. I dont think you understood the movie.
totorovirus 7y ago
They don't ask technical questions or anything related to CS...

ChrisRR 7y ago

If he didn't know how to write C++ but has a CS degree then presumably he knows another language like java. Many language features are interchangeable so it sets you up for picking up a new language fairly quickly

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

rasz 6y ago

This is the exact history of Tetsuya Iida, Sony programmer responsible for PS2 software compatibility layer. "I had no real electrical engineering skills to speak of whatsoever and I didn’t even know how to boot up Windows 3.1, let alone how to write any programs. Even now, I can’t help but wonder what people at Sony saw in me when they decided to hire me. Luckily, I got the chance to learn how to program computers thanks to a training program that the company ran. " https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22501566 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22501566 https://medium.com/@freelansations/the-story-of-the-ps2s-backwards-compatibility-from-the-engineer-who-built-it-ec39cf5a0353 https://medium.com/@freelansations/the-story-of-the-ps2s-bac... TLDR: this seems to be standard Asian hiring practice.

fomine3 6y ago
At least, It's very common in Japan.