Re: Testing job applicants

[fortran@earthlink.net (Fortran Dragon)]

My glass typewriter shows Bryan Villados typing...
[Snip]
> The point I want to make is that, mentally, there is a difference
> between a self-taught programmer and someone who learned to program in
> school. I think the "it's a good career" comment is on the money! When
> I went to college to get my bachelor in Computer Science, the students
> there who learned how to code literally memorized complete routines and
> kept libraries of routines written by their professors. They couldn't
> re-write them from scratch simply because they didn't know how to think
> for themselves. The school I went to were at fault for this dilemma
> because the professors were too lazy to grade each student's code for
> individuality, thus they told the students to code using their methods.

	That's an interesting viewpoint, but originally I thought the 
opposite to you.  :)  In my the self-taught people were usually quite 
limited.  They could work wonders with dBase III+, say, but weren't able 
to grasp basic concepts like structure programming (and were quite 
resistant to learning anything knew 'cause they had their niche).  The 
college CS student usually knew how to learn and could grasp the 
important concepts and then dealt with the particular syntax needed.

	What I since discovered is that it is the _person_ not the way 
they came to programming that matters.  A good programmer will be 
inquisitive, bright, knowledgeable, and someone to hang onto, no matter 
if they were self-taught or had their first exposure at college.
 
-- 

Fortran Dragon -==(UDIC)==-
Hidalgo Trading Company: <http://home.earthlink.net/~fortran/>
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