Joel’s college advice
I managed to read Dave’s mention of Joel’s lastest CS rant before I actually read the Joel feed, which is always a fun way to filter your reading.
Anyhow, this brings to mind a conversation I had with my mother over the holidays, in which I claimed to her that a good summer internship is probably the single most important thing a CS student needs in order to be hirable, 85 on a scale of 100. This is a little exagerrated, of course, considering that a total lack of C (or at least C-based) programming language skill would hopefully make the job hunt tough. I wasn’t told this, but I’m lucky.
I also seem to remember a deemphasis in intensive learning of a single programming language, and a trend toward higher level languages at every opportunity. Specifically, I remember hearing on numerous occasions that I was being taught the skill of learning languages rather than skill in any particular language, so when asked by a future employer if I knew a language I could confidently exclaim, “Yes!”, and then go grab a book and make it true. In case you aren’t aware, “knowledge of” and “expertise in” are different concepts, and the concept of worker productivity is unknown in academia. This is a line of complete bullshit a professor at a state school may use to feel on par with professors at more prestigious institutions. Curriculums, by the way, Joel also doesn’t mind bashing when he explains the exact moment he vowed never to go to graduate school in Computer Science.
In another essay Joel makes a comment about some peoples’ brains handling multiple levels of indirection; some people can do it, and some simply can’t. A student should be given the opportunity to discover this about themselves as early as possible in their studies.
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