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 😄
As much as I hate the higher education requirement, if I get another “boot camp” developer application I’m gonna puke.
This is why I only interview barefoot candidates.
I need to see between the toes if they wanna work with me 🦶
I take a little taste, just to be sure.
Would you elaborate?
That way you know they didn’t attend a boot camp …
LOL, yep, I missed that.
Can you talk about this more?
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.
This is true in both cases
This is true. It’s an interesting destination.
Edit: does a well rounded and accredited education provide more value to your organization than a narrowly scoped employee?
Yes, a well-rounded employee is generally more valuable than one with limited skills.
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.
For entry level? Honestly, not usually. They know one thing, and if they deviate from that, their quality breaks down fast.
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?
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 <?php echo $title;?>. 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.
I take the PHP, and I throw it in the trash.
And replace it with?
Python.
Is that because you’re more familiar with python than PHP? What framework do you use?
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.
Was this all pre-PHP 8?
The vast majority of boot camp grads are terrible candidates. A degree guarantees almost nothing but a boot camp cert guarantees even less.
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.
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?
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.