Re: Testing job applicants

[Pete Fenelon <pete@fenelon.com>]

In alt.folklore.computers Ruff Records <ruffrecords@geocities.com> wrote:
> But how to tell good from bad?  Our experience of CS qualified candidates at
> interview was that their engineering knowledge was very poor so we abandoned
> recruiting them.  If we knew which colleges ran the 'good' courses we could
> only select those for interview.  Any suggestions??

First, quanitify "good" -- well, I'd say courses where a systems approach
is taken, where sound engineering judgement is rewarded and encouraged, and 
where a high degree of intellectual rigour is needed, and where
software and hardware aren't taught in isolation. 

Within the UK I'd say York, Bristol, Kent, Newcastle, Imperial College, 
Manchester (UMIST struck me as a bit less "engineering" and a lot more
"software"), Bradford, Warwick (seems to breed a curious mixture
of pragmatists and theorists; the closer they are to the maths department
the further their feet tend to be from the ground!), Hertfordshire
(formerly Hatfield), Kingston. Teesside was also building up a range of
good courses last time I had much contact with them.

I'm sure there are more - they're places I've either studied and worked
myself (York), been involved in collaborative work with (Newcastle,
Teesside), or worked with graduates of who clearly knew how many beans 
made five (the others).

I believe Brunel, Bath, Lancaster, Aston and Surrey have good
engineering-oriented courses, but haven't worked closely with anyone
who took one of them.

pete
-- 
pete@fenelon.com "there's no room for enigmas in built-up areas" (HMHB)