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Can someone decode the term "non-traditional hire"? I'm sure I knew what this meant at one point but forgot.

• fractionalhare 6y ago
  Typically means someone without traditional credentials, such as a college degree or any work experience.
  • itsmemattchung 6y ago
    Wish the article would explicitly spell it out. It wasn't obvious from reading it that traditional == college degree (or work experience).
    • chrisseaton 6y ago
      What do you think the traditional education is for a software engineer?
      • greggyb 6y ago
        Well, for the first few decades it was math or EE....
        • deleted 6y ago
          [deleted]
        • chrisseaton 6y ago
          A math or EE... what? A degree, right? A relevant degree is the traditional education. If you don't have one - you're non-traditional. Get it?
          • greggyb 6y ago
            Oh, thanks for spelling it out for me. Being incredibly stupid, it's valuable for me when people treat me as such. (: Traditional education for practical purposes was, for much of human history, focused much more on apprenticeship-style learning than degrees. Colleges and universities were not considered a prerequisite for lots of technical jobs such as carpentry, architecture, toolmaking, clockmaking, or even banking and accounting. If we look at the last century or so, instead of the breadth of human history, we'll see a different story. Perhaps this is a good scope to consider, seeing as the history of Computer Science and programming largely falls into this time period. If we want to consider digital computing, the dawn of our field had plenty of people coming to programming "from industry", to use a modern term. Experienced professionals learned to program outside of degree programs, because there were no degrees to be had in computer science or programming. Many early pioneers in programming and digital computing came from EE programs and Mathematics departments. This is the early tradition of programming and computer science. Today, though, if you were looking to start a career as an SRE or as a programmer, a Math degree would be a poor choice. It is traditional, in that it was a common early path, but it is much less likely to prepare you for the type of job relevant to this thread. An individual with a degree in Literature would likely be considered a non-traditional candidate for a programming job. An individual with a degree in Mathematics may be considered the same. A Math degree may have a lot of computational focus, or none at all. Get it?
• 6gvONxR4sf7o 6y ago
  Traditional = CS degree
  • treeman79 6y ago
    20 years traditional often meant dropped out of CS to join/start your company. Gain useful skills. Well placed like MIT were actually good