Sorry but a degree just demonstrates that you can pass exams and follow rules. Almost all new graduates I knew had a big ego, a lack of critical thinking, that combined in a massive Dunning Kruger effect. They are better middle management material than engineers. They can’t even RTFM, like c’mon. And AI is just making all this worse.
And that’s why I generally ask about FOSS work. If you’re contributing to upstream projects as a hobby, then you’ve demonstrated that you can jump into a larger codebase and figure out their procedures and style guidelines, which means you can probably do the same here.
Failing that, I ask them to apply the theory they learned in school to practical problems, like “how would you use design pattern A for problem X? What about pattern B? How do you decide between the two?” Most people can’t tell me what A or B is, and they can’t even solve problem X with their own methods… I don’t care about people knowing arbitrary design patterns, I care that they can reason about problems, consider multiple approaches, and decide between those approaches given the larger context of the project.
So many people just fall flat on their face in an interview on concepts they should have learned in their third year, which even our people who didn’t go to college can do since they’ve been on the job for a few years. Show me you’re better than a self-taught person and a few years of experience if you want anything other than an intern role.
Sorry but a degree just demonstrates that you can pass exams and follow rules. Almost all new graduates I knew had a big ego, a lack of critical thinking, that combined in a massive Dunning Kruger effect. They are better middle management material than engineers. They can’t even RTFM, like c’mon. And AI is just making all this worse.
Exactly!
And that’s why I generally ask about FOSS work. If you’re contributing to upstream projects as a hobby, then you’ve demonstrated that you can jump into a larger codebase and figure out their procedures and style guidelines, which means you can probably do the same here.
Failing that, I ask them to apply the theory they learned in school to practical problems, like “how would you use design pattern A for problem X? What about pattern B? How do you decide between the two?” Most people can’t tell me what A or B is, and they can’t even solve problem X with their own methods… I don’t care about people knowing arbitrary design patterns, I care that they can reason about problems, consider multiple approaches, and decide between those approaches given the larger context of the project.
So many people just fall flat on their face in an interview on concepts they should have learned in their third year, which even our people who didn’t go to college can do since they’ve been on the job for a few years. Show me you’re better than a self-taught person and a few years of experience if you want anything other than an intern role.