this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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This article outlines an opinion that organizations either tried skills based hiring and reverted to degree required hiring because it was warranted, or they didn't adapt their process in spite of executive vision.

Since this article is non industry specific, what are your observations or opinions of the technology sector? What about the general business sector?

Should first world employees of businesses be required to obtain degrees if they reasonably expect a business related job?

Do college experiences and academic rigor reveal higher achieving employees?

Is undergraduate education a minimum standard for a more enlightened society? Or a way to hold separation between classes of people and status?

Is a masters degree the new way to differentiate yourself where the undergrad degree was before?

Edit: multiple typos, I guess that's proof that I should have done more college 😄

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 8 months ago (2 children)

As much as I hate the higher education requirement, if I get another “boot camp” developer application I’m gonna puke.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago (2 children)

This is why I only interview barefoot candidates.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I need to see between the toes if they wanna work with me 🦶

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I take a little taste, just to be sure.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

only interview barefoot candidates

Would you elaborate?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That way you know they didn't attend a boot camp ...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

LOL, yep, I missed that.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Can you talk about this more?

  • Does it mean that a boot camp coder is not skilled enough?
  • Would that have those skills if they did a degree program?
  • Would any degree in computer/IT suffice?
[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

A boot camp means you paid someone; there is no accreditation, unlike university degree programs. A relevant degree is an indicator that someone might be suitable.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

you paid someone

This is true in both cases

no accreditation, unlike university degree programs

This is true. It's an interesting destination.

  • Would you say that an accreditation covers the technical rigor of a degree program?
  • A boot camp only cares about the narrow scope. An accreditation cares about a well rounded, and unified education experience. Do you look for that in your candidates?

Edit: does a well rounded and accredited education provide more value to your organization than a narrowly scoped employee?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

Yes, a well-rounded employee is generally more valuable than one with limited skills.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (3 children)

There are people who went to Boot Camps that are excellent developers. There are people who have a masters degree in computer science who are awful developers.

skilled enough.

For entry level? Honestly, not usually. They know one thing, and if they deviate from that, their quality breaks down fast.

degree program.

Well, there’s no guarantee right? But they’d have a more well rounded understanding of programming. Anyone can use a Class, but can you make one?

degrees

Any programming degree, along with an acceptable understanding of the technologies they need on day one.

For my job specifically, we need someone with PHP experience. Not just how to . My favorite interview question is, “explain to me your understanding of PHP magic methods and how you would use them, in a basic example.”

I get a lot of dumb looks, and wrong answers.

That being said, I hired someone who failed that test, but they had a good personality and a willingness to learn—and they have a CS degree.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I take the PHP, and I throw it in the trash.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Is that because you’re more familiar with python than PHP? What framework do you use?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I built sites in PHP before I knew any Python.

All of my personal web stuff is now based on Flask. I basically just replaced the P in LAMP with Python.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Y'all keep asking that. Yes, this was a while ago. Did they completely start over from scratch with 8? Otherwise, the clusterfuck is only growing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I think it would be easier for you to give me an idea of the clusterfuck you have experienced and I can let you know if that cluster is still fucking.

What I do know, is that it is significantly better. Nullable types, multi-catch, typed properties, arrow functions, etc.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'm not going to dig up decades-old code for you to pick over - but I do recall that the labyrinthian and ever-increasingly complex and buggy behavior of the multitudinous builtins was an undending pain in the ass.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I was just wondering if you had anything off the top of your head. Any language can be spaghetti if you make it spaghetti. 🤷‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The problem is that PHP is inherently spaghetti.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Using any of the builtins is incorrect usage, apparently.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Using them incorrectly, would be incorrect. Without an example, it’s hard to tell.

But, pretty much everyone was doing the web “wrong” back in the day. Server-side html generation? Gag me. Or worse, inserting PHP into html?! Shudder. But that’s how it was for many backed languages.

IMO, nowadays, if it’s not a reactive js front end using the backend as an API, it’s doing it wrong. But I’m sure in 10 years we will all be laughing at how seriously we were taking JavaScript.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It makes me shudder to think how the modern web is just treating browsers as JavaScript application environments. Converting a little backend load into a massive frontend headache is the exact opposite of where we thought we were headed twenty years ago.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Well, it’s not a massive front end headache if you do it right. And, by passing off a lot of the easy stuff to the browser, your server can handle more load. As a bonus, it’s easier to decouple your architecture. Not only is this more efficient, but it’s easier to maintain, test, and deploy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's sacrificing efficiency on the frontend for the backend. It makes the backend easier to test, while making the frontend more complex. It significantly jacks up requirements for the clients while reducing them for the host.

You backend people are forgetting that there are devices on the other end that need to process and render this bullshit. It sells more new iPhones, though, so who the fuck cares?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I’m equally proficient on the front end. I don’t have any problem making front end code that doesn’t require the latest and greatest processor.

Inefficient JavaScript and abusive css animation are the cause of all that. Preventing event flooding is crucial and often overlooked. And ffs, not everything has to be animated. If the fan kicks on, that developer is a moron.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

My point is that the JavaScript is inherently inefficient.

The possibility that you might suck less than someone else doesn't fix that fact, or the fact that the modern web can bring a ten-year-old tablet to its knees.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

JavaScript doesn’t run on a Commodore 64 either, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use it.

I’ll still argue that an efficient web app will be a significantly better experience than waiting for pages to load, even on a 10 year old tablet.

And to support that, I do most of my mobile testing on my old iPhone 6—which is, coincidentally, 10 years old. I don’t have trouble with JavaScript on that.

I think what it comes down to is there are a lot of unskilled developers out there that misuse JavaScript… and PHP.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

And both are complete clusterfucks, so it's not that surprising.

But at this point it's literally just a case of "old man yells at cloud."

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

More than PHP and JavaScript?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

🤷‍♂️ kinda sounds like you might be doing things the hard way.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

By considering all aspects of a system, and identifying bottlenecks?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Did you already forget the prior thread?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Where you didn’t actually have any specific complaints other than your poor implementation of JavaScript and PHP? Yes I recall. I assume you don’t actually currently do this for a living?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Maybe go back and reread the thread, buddy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I did. You just complain about JavaScript like someone who can’t use JavaScript and complain about PHP like someone who can’t use PHP. Your reasoning isn’t based on any real world examples, and your opinions of technologies that are widely praised seem to be based on a grudge. You weren’t kidding about yelling at clouds.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

PHP and JavaScript are widely derided. What planet are you on?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I’m on the planet that gets paid. You spend too much time in /programminghumor and not enough time developing.

But nothing is good to you, since everything is a “clusterfuck” right?

PECAK.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Look, I get it. You have no idea what the computer is actually doing when it runs your little scripts.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

That must be it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Obviously, there's a lot of 'it depends on the person' in this topic. At least in my mind. I think you're right in that both things (degree/camp) create good and bad results.

I get a lot of dumb looks, and wrong answers.

  • Do you have any experience hiring a person who passed that test, who wasn't a degree holder?

  • Do you have any experiences where someone failed that test, wasn't a degree holder, and you hired them anyway?

  • Do you feel you could put a ratio to it in your field/employer?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I don’t have statistics for you.

I’ve never had a good experience personally, as a developer, with someone whose applicable education came only from a boot camp.

Boot camps are fine for supplemental education. For learning a new skill. But are not (usually) a good foundation, and don’t teach you enough to actually get a job.

Also, and this is more personal, it’s kind of annoying when someone thinks their 60 hour class should get them a high paying job.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

The vast majority of boot camp grads are terrible candidates. A degree guarantees almost nothing but a boot camp cert guarantees even less.