Because time spent getting the PhD is time spent away from the field, and that's a negative factor that may or may not be balanced by the specialization of the

Because time spent getting the PhD is time spent away from the field, and that's a negative factor that may or may not be balanced by the specialization of the PhD. So, yes, all things being equal, I'd definitely want a new CS grad over the basketweaving expert who hasn't touched a computer in 4 years. I'd also take the dev with solid 5 years recent team lead experience over someone who thinks his 5 years on a private project in school merits a senior programmer position on a development platform he's completely ignorant of. I'm not saying that's the guy in the article, I have no idea.