The Underscore Archives

On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 2:06 PM, Neil Webb <neil at nwebb.co.uk> wrote:
> Hmmm, I would argue that anyone who has demonstrated the ability and
> motivation to teach themselves is a candidate worthy of an interview.
> Surely you want someone who will keep on learning once they have
> stopped being taught, especially given the pace of change in the
> sector. A uni degree on its own doesn't give any indication of this,
> but someone who is self-taught (and probably didn't have the same time
> and/or resources afforded to them as most uni students do) has, on the
> other hand amply demonstrated this already. Their CV should tell you
> if they have a grounding in any required processes, and a quick
> interview test should confirm this or rule them out. So, if anything
> my selection process would be exactly the opposite. I contracted for 6
> years, and many of the smartest and hard working developers I met were
> self taught.

When I said "the reasoning was sound", I should probably have said "it
was hard to argue against" as the policy was brought in by the then
head of department, who left the company a couple of years ago. The
current trend has been towards using contractors anyway, and I don't
think the ruling (wrt CS degree or equivalent) still stands.

In short: I agree with you. It was a management shortcut and, by the
sounds of it, not an especially useful one.

Tim