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I can only speak for myself, but I've never met a (CS) candidate from an accredited Scandinavian university / college that simply could not write code. There a

I can only speak for myself, but I've never met a (CS) candidate from an accredited Scandinavian university / college that simply could not write code. There are obviously candidates that struggle with performing under pressure - even those that have gone completely blank, but through some simple guiding have bounced back. To be frank, at the schools I studied at, it would be impossible to fake your way through a whole degree, unless you either got someone to impersonate you and take your exams, or you cheated your way through every single exam...but even then, your grades would be a big red flag. Sure, there are bad programmers out there - but not being able to punch out a line of valid code, after obtaining a whole degree in the subject...seems extremely unlikely - sans the extreme edge cases. Even the straight E / D students I've worked with managed to cobble together working stuff, without the aid of search engines or stack exchange.

b20000 5y ago
and it's the same for most other (non private) universities in europe.
overrun11 5y ago
Maybe Scandinavian countries have more rigorous degree programs. If so they are fairly unique in that regard. I don't see how we can use that during hiring thought. What are tech companies supposed to do: only hire from these universities? That seems less fair than the current process.
- b20000 5y ago
  how so? you are rewarding students for working hard to get their degree? the current process basically tells them: we don’t care you worked crazy hard, it’s back to square 1. they might just as well gone straight into an internship after high school… also: this is not just the case for scandinavian universities but also the case for universities in most of western europe especially if they are non-private.
  - overrun11 5y ago
    I believe you that this is the level of talent at western European universities but what about all the other universities outside of Western Europe that aren't like this. Should companies exempt you from a grueling interview process only if you are from one of these schools?
    - b20000 5y ago
      sure, why not? companies collect info about what school you graduated from and your grades anyway already. they can associate that data with who they fired to decide if they want to hire out of that school.
      - selcuka 5y ago
        That would be an even more fragile metric. It only takes one or two bad professors to skew the stats.
        b20000 5y ago
        i don’t see how that would skew the stats as it would affect only a few courses you take and you can still do decent and self study if the professor is crap.
prepend 5y ago
I suppose you’re very fortunate, but I wouldn’t generalize anything from your experience. Just like I wouldn’t generalize from mine. I’ve worked with programmers from Scandinavian university degrees and some sucked. Not sure how they passed, but the degree was 15 years old and this was the early 00s.

b20000 5y ago

and it's the same for most other (non private) universities in europe.

overrun11 5y ago

Maybe Scandinavian countries have more rigorous degree programs. If so they are fairly unique in that regard. I don't see how we can use that during hiring thought. What are tech companies supposed to do: only hire from these universities? That seems less fair than the current process.

b20000 5y ago
how so? you are rewarding students for working hard to get their degree? the current process basically tells them: we don’t care you worked crazy hard, it’s back to square 1. they might just as well gone straight into an internship after high school… also: this is not just the case for scandinavian universities but also the case for universities in most of western europe especially if they are non-private.
- overrun11 5y ago
  I believe you that this is the level of talent at western European universities but what about all the other universities outside of Western Europe that aren't like this. Should companies exempt you from a grueling interview process only if you are from one of these schools?
  - b20000 5y ago
    sure, why not? companies collect info about what school you graduated from and your grades anyway already. they can associate that data with who they fired to decide if they want to hire out of that school.
    - selcuka 5y ago
      That would be an even more fragile metric. It only takes one or two bad professors to skew the stats.
      - b20000 5y ago
        i don’t see how that would skew the stats as it would affect only a few courses you take and you can still do decent and self study if the professor is crap.

prepend 5y ago

I suppose you’re very fortunate, but I wouldn’t generalize anything from your experience. Just like I wouldn’t generalize from mine. I’ve worked with programmers from Scandinavian university degrees and some sucked. Not sure how they passed, but the degree was 15 years old and this was the early 00s.