@accalia said:
none of that i learned in school, none of that was ever on a test, and none of that has ever helped me get a first interview with a company (it has however on at least two occasions clinched me the job).
The reason I stuck it out and got that degree? Because that was the only way i was going to get past round 1 with HR. It doesn't help me interview with my prospective boss, it helps me get to interview with my prospective boss.
Given that, and given the people i've been in a position to interview for jobs, i've got to say.... there's something very wrong with the job market in this country if i can't get HR to approve applicants that don't have a completed postsecondary education, and the ones i get where there major is in the field they are applying for more often than not completely fail to metaphorically find their ass with a star chart when asked to do soething on the level of "write me a program in the language of your choice that prints the message hello world"
i'm not kidding. A DOCTORATE graduate of computer science with a focus in programming completely failed to write hello world.
we have something wrong in our education system. we have something wrong in our job markets.
and i have no idea how to fix it.
QFT and +1, because a like just isn't enough.
We have an education system that produces reams of worthless, meaningless credentials, and C-list HR [s]people[/s]droids who are like "lalalalala CAN'T HEAR YOU" if you don't have the credentials, basically no matter what other experience you present. I'll tell you that me going for my CS degree certainly didn't help me land the internship I held for a good 18months over all the other CS students who wanted it; it was that I could present prior experience in making the box with blinky lights do stuff, whereas all the people who were just interested in being the next code monkey to come out of Code Monkeys 'R Us were like "Uh...."
My suspect is that the textbook police neutered primary (and secondary, even) education to the point where students have lost all ability to handle a rigorous treatment of any field at all, and businesses -- run by mostly-clueless business/accounting/... majors, because institutional shareholders don't want to invest in a business run by clueful people out of fear they couldn't get away with their increasingly ridiculous demands -- insist that postsecondary education provide enough people to fill a perceived 'tech shortage' that is mainly self-inflicted by the interference of HR in the hiring process for technical positions. Not only do they persist in requiring useless credentials, they impose increasingly arcane laundry-lists of technological qualifications on positions to the point where practically nobody can fulfill them 'out of the box'. Yet, these very same HR folks complain about a shortage while they too cheapskated and near-sighted to offer any sort of technical training.
Is this a conspiracy to allow the modern business world to mine for cheap labor overseas while generating unemployment on their own shores? Or is this just a sign of woeful short-sightedness on the part of the clueless, tie-strangled sheeple that inhabit the vast majority of the business world?