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I've done the "google it" approach, so here's my .02 We talk to a lot of college grads. Clasically, colleges don't seem to teach a lick of web development. Jus

I've done the "google it" approach, so here's my .02 We talk to a lot of college grads. Clasically, colleges don't seem to teach a lick of web development. Just old-fashioned comp-sci uselessness. We know these kids are bright, but they're not going to be able to develop full stack out of the gate, usually, without some aide. We were all like that once. What I want to see from a bright young talent is whether or not they know where to go to get the answer, and how quickly they can use it, and how quickly they can grok it. It doesn't take an incredibly long amount of time to start becoming useful to web dev with all the resources out there. I'm OK if they don't know some arcane bit of CSS, like that white-space: nowrap exists. They can and will find that information very quickly, and it's not difficult to remember, retain, or understand. If I'm interviewing a candidate with a proclaimed 8 years experience in the industry, for a position of mid-to-senior level developer, they really shouldn't need that extra help. They should be shipping-ready (given the time needed to understand the idiosyncrasies of your company's style). I've found that this approach has netted us a good deal of sleeper candidates that, on paper and on a white board, may not look like much, but end up being killer, driven developers.

elliottcarlson 14y ago
> Just old-fashioned comp-sci uselessness. Yet so many interview tests tend to have a focus on CS backgrounds. I just went through a few weeks of interviewing and some of the questions asked were really there to see if you knew your CS stuff. For some companies the questions were at least relevant to the industry and tasks they were trying to accomplish, but some were so far out there it just didn't make sense. The company I finally decided to accept at had a sane interviewing process, one that had challenging enough questions to show that you know what you are talking about - and when there was one lesser known method I wanted to use, but couldn't remember the syntax, they allowed me to look it up real quick. In the end, I was able to teach the interviewer about this method, and it helped me complete the task in a far more efficient manner.
fusiongyro 14y ago
> Just old-fashioned comp-sci uselessness Everything you're saying is reasonable but this phrase reminded me, one of my favorite profs used to say, "Knowing about computational complexity won't ever get you a job, but it will keep you from being fired." Several times I've started a job and discovered my predecessor had coded himself into a corner because he didn't see the combinatorial explosion on the other side of what he was doing.
- breckenedge 14y ago
  Were your predecessors predominantly CS grads or not?
  - fusiongyro 14y ago
    Not.
    - vonmoltke 14y ago
      What was their background?
      - fusiongyro 14y ago
        Hard saying in much detail; after all, I showed up after they left. Factually at least twice they were highschoolers or college dropouts. In another case he had a history degree, and a business degree in another. I now work for the NRAO, so I can tell you any level of education in a physics or math track is not necessarily sufficient to learn how to program--the physicists in particular seem wholly unable to perceive code quality or understand what might affect performance and what wouldn't. This, of course, doesn't stop them from writing their own code and giving opinions about what's wrong with your code, sight unseen. ("I think your program is calling malloc and free incorrectly."--scientist, about my Java code).
yesimahuman 14y ago
> Just old-fashioned comp-sci uselessness. The reason they are able to pick up "web development" so quickly is because of this old-fashioned comp-sci education. Web dev isn't a thing, it's just another platform to learn. At its core are basic CS concepts. Sure, you won't be a super expert on day one, but it's just like picking up iOS development. I'd rather have someone who could pick up iOS dev in a day than someone that only does it and took months to learn.

elliottcarlson 14y ago

> Just old-fashioned comp-sci uselessness. Yet so many interview tests tend to have a focus on CS backgrounds. I just went through a few weeks of interviewing and some of the questions asked were really there to see if you knew your CS stuff. For some companies the questions were at least relevant to the industry and tasks they were trying to accomplish, but some were so far out there it just didn't make sense. The company I finally decided to accept at had a sane interviewing process, one that had challenging enough questions to show that you know what you are talking about - and when there was one lesser known method I wanted to use, but couldn't remember the syntax, they allowed me to look it up real quick. In the end, I was able to teach the interviewer about this method, and it helped me complete the task in a far more efficient manner.

fusiongyro 14y ago

> Just old-fashioned comp-sci uselessness Everything you're saying is reasonable but this phrase reminded me, one of my favorite profs used to say, "Knowing about computational complexity won't ever get you a job, but it will keep you from being fired." Several times I've started a job and discovered my predecessor had coded himself into a corner because he didn't see the combinatorial explosion on the other side of what he was doing.

breckenedge 14y ago
Were your predecessors predominantly CS grads or not?
- fusiongyro 14y ago
  Not.
  - vonmoltke 14y ago
    What was their background?
    - fusiongyro 14y ago
      Hard saying in much detail; after all, I showed up after they left. Factually at least twice they were highschoolers or college dropouts. In another case he had a history degree, and a business degree in another. I now work for the NRAO, so I can tell you any level of education in a physics or math track is not necessarily sufficient to learn how to program--the physicists in particular seem wholly unable to perceive code quality or understand what might affect performance and what wouldn't. This, of course, doesn't stop them from writing their own code and giving opinions about what's wrong with your code, sight unseen. ("I think your program is calling malloc and free incorrectly."--scientist, about my Java code).

yesimahuman 14y ago

> Just old-fashioned comp-sci uselessness. The reason they are able to pick up "web development" so quickly is because of this old-fashioned comp-sci education. Web dev isn't a thing, it's just another platform to learn. At its core are basic CS concepts. Sure, you won't be a super expert on day one, but it's just like picking up iOS development. I'd rather have someone who could pick up iOS dev in a day than someone that only does it and took months to learn.