7 ms·

I just had the experience of interviewing about 10 grad students from a computer science program that's relatively highly regarded (definitely not top 10, but m

I just had the experience of interviewing about 10 grad students from a computer science program that's relatively highly regarded (definitely not top 10, but most would associate CS with the school). Only one of the candidates was able to explain any meaningful difference between GET and POST in HTTP. I don't know that universities are places that are likely to impart this type of knowledge in their grads.

chudi 13y ago
I think that this is not a good example, yes you should know http from your networks classes, but you need a highly specialized worker in a really big field, you just cant expect that everyone know everything that you need, maybe the students that you interview know more about OS or maybe Graphics and nothing about the web. I think its just a broad field! Im doing a MS in CS and if I would apply to some work in 3D I wouldnt get a job because thats not what I like and I dont see people from the 3D field complaining that the schools dont prepare the students properly
randomdata 13y ago
I have always understood that college was for learning about underlying theories, but not necessarily industry-specific tools. If someone picks up HTTP during that time, great, but it shouldn't come as an expectation. That is what community college is for. Perhaps a better question would be: "The HTTP verb POST is non-idempotent. When must you use a POST request?"
3pt14159 13y ago
You need to do a better job pre-filtering candidates. You are not doing your company a service by letting down a bunch of people over and over. I have a rule: Code samples or OSS contributions or it is an auto "no-interview". Even for first year co-op students. From the code it self you can usually judge competence. If the code samples pass most of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_smell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_smell then I bring 'em in for an interview. I have yet to meet someone that doesn't know what the difference between a GET and a POST. For me a bad interview is if someone doesn't know what types of things are found in the headers, or doesn't understand the basics of oAuth. Before people come in here and start up with the "you are not mid-thirties with kids" BS, no I'm not. But I know plenty of people that are, and it isn't too hard to get 200 lines of code to someones inbox.

chudi 13y ago

I think that this is not a good example, yes you should know http from your networks classes, but you need a highly specialized worker in a really big field, you just cant expect that everyone know everything that you need, maybe the students that you interview know more about OS or maybe Graphics and nothing about the web. I think its just a broad field! Im doing a MS in CS and if I would apply to some work in 3D I wouldnt get a job because thats not what I like and I dont see people from the 3D field complaining that the schools dont prepare the students properly

randomdata 13y ago

I have always understood that college was for learning about underlying theories, but not necessarily industry-specific tools. If someone picks up HTTP during that time, great, but it shouldn't come as an expectation. That is what community college is for. Perhaps a better question would be: "The HTTP verb POST is non-idempotent. When must you use a POST request?"

3pt14159 13y ago

You need to do a better job pre-filtering candidates. You are not doing your company a service by letting down a bunch of people over and over. I have a rule: Code samples or OSS contributions or it is an auto "no-interview". Even for first year co-op students. From the code it self you can usually judge competence. If the code samples pass most of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_smell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_smell then I bring 'em in for an interview. I have yet to meet someone that doesn't know what the difference between a GET and a POST. For me a bad interview is if someone doesn't know what types of things are found in the headers, or doesn't understand the basics of oAuth. Before people come in here and start up with the "you are not mid-thirties with kids" BS, no I'm not. But I know plenty of people that are, and it isn't too hard to get 200 lines of code to someones inbox.