Re: Testing job applicants

[Bryan Villados <news001@macgeek.org>]

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When I was a ROM-BIOS Engineer at Phoenix Technologies, virtually none
of the engineers/programmers learned programming in college or
vocational school. I learned how to program on an Intel 8085 simulator,
and later on an Apple II.

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.

On my final in Assembler Language II (taken while I worked at Phoenix
Tech), I wrote a 2000-line application in 80286 assembler. To me, it
was beautifully written, complete with documentation and portable
functions and procedures. However, the professor gave me a "B" for it
because I didn't follow his methods. Matter of fact, almost everyone
else received "A"'s on their final, and all of their code looked almost
exactly the same. I ended up reporting him to the Dean, and I won under
the single argument that I program in assembler professionally and the
professor doesn't.

This was 11 years ago... I see these same students in the real world
today struggling. The ones I keep in touch with have bailed out of
programming because either they weren't productive enough, or they
simply burned out.

Being self-taught gave me several advantages. Being self-taught lets me
become more creative in my method/techniques. I also think more
creatively about programming solutions. Especially when I developed
ROM-BIOS's that had to fit in a 64KB ROM, I had to think about
compactness and robustness under the same breath.

I think with faster processors and tons of RAM and hard disk space,
programming has become much lazier, less brain cells are being burned,
and fewer cans of Jolt Cola are being consumed. It's no longer making
code smaller. I guess it goes with the times, but unfortunately
creativity (Microsoft is a good example) and robustness has lost its
flare.

Knowing all this... If I was in high school right now, I'd probably end
up writing databases in Microsoft Access.... Hehehehehe!

In article <newscache$1k1fhf$mb9@gw.ihg.com>, David Emrich
<demrich@ihgtech.com.au> wrote:

> Charles Richmond wrote in message <37CD390C.83000B3F@plano.net>...
> >Jerry Freedman Jr wrote:
> >> I have met a *LOT* of people with Computer Science/Engineering degrees
> >> who have told me "Yeah, I am getting this degree, but I really don't
> >> want/like to program".
> >>
> >>
> >Ask them (in the interview) what kind of computer equipment they have
> >at home---and what programming projects they work on, one their own.
> >If they are programming for free, for fun, then they *must* like it.
> >
> >Yeah, I dislike people who learn programming because "it's a good career."
> 
> 
> Hey guys, at least it isn't as dangerous or expensive as those who become
> Doctors and Lawyers because they're "good careers"!
> 
> I reckon I know at least one instance of each, and they're absolutely
> unbelievable.
> 
> Dje.