[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Testing job applicants
On Mon, 6 Sep 1999 20:56:32 +0100, Pete Fenelon
<pete@fenelon.com> wrote:
>In alt.folklore.computers Chris Brown <Chris.omitthisbit.Brown@arm.andthisbit.com> wrote:
>> Indeed. You might want to add Cambridge to your list, although you're
>> less likely to bump into graduates because most of us tend to end up
>> working within about 10 miles of the place after we graduate (for the
>> benefit of US based readers, the cambridge area , often dubbed
>> "Silicon Fen" is fast becoming Europe's answer to Silicon Valley,
>
>There's obviously something good going on in Cambridge, and has been
>for a long time, but it seems that at least in the recent past there
>was some tendency to deter people from doing Computer Science
>at undergrad level.
>
>I had an offer from Cambridge, but at the time (86 entry) I got the
>impression that Computer Science, at undergrad level, was something
>regarded as a dumping ground for mathematicians, engineers and Nat Sci
>people who washed out in Part 1s. (I'd applied to go in via Part 1 Nat
>Sci). There wasn't a CS Part I at the time, and the admissions people I
>met seemed much keener to keep me as a scientist... very sniffy attitude
>(tried to convince me that ideally I didn't want to study computing until
>after my first degree, and if I *must* study it, I should only take the
>one-year IIb course) and a very negative experience.
>
>I felt as though my chosen subject was something they'd rather not have
>in their nice old university. Kind of odd since I'd grown up reading
>about Turing and Wilkes and so on...
>
>I declined the offer, which caused me great fun at school a few weeks
>later when they found out (I wasn't on speaking terms with many of the
>teachers, but that's another story.... "You've let the school down, think
>of our reputation..." "Why should that bother me? I'm out of here...")
>
>Maybe things have changed -- I've only worked with a few Cambridge BAs who
>haven't struck me as particularly practical; I've worked with a few people
>with postgrad experience there, and they're *SERIOUSLY* bright.
>
>Certainly over the past four or five years about a quarter of the
>calls I've had from recruitment agencies have been attempting to get me
>to defect to the Fens...
>
>pete
They probably just think its natural with your name... GDR ;^>
Thanks. Take care, Brian Inglis Calgary, Alberta, Canada
--
Brian_Inglis@CSi.com (Brian dot Inglis at SystematicSw dot ab dot ca)
use address above to reply