Ask HN: Should CS university grads be unemployable due to lack of initiative?

Given the amount of self-teaching that can be done nowadays, doesn't it make more sense for software companies to prefer self-taught applicants over university grads?

I'm currently attending college and it is frustrating to watch grad students who know nothing get hired over some one who is technically skilled. It's baffling to say the least.

I learned a ton in school and have applied concepts and took ideas and expanded upon them. Now I'm not just hacking away at a piece of ice, now I understand everything I'm doing and why one way is faster than another

If you're interested in running a successful company you'll prefer whoever is most competent (technically, socially, etc.), regardless of where they're coming from.

If someone you think is a 'know nothing' gets hired instead of someone you view as technically skilled, you've learned something about that company. Maybe you don't actually want to work there.

College isn't a magical pill, what you get out of it is proportionate to what you put into it. If you're motivated enough to teach yourself to program, you're probably motivated enough to learn a lot in college as well.

Being self taught and being college educated are not mutually exclusive.

I went to uni, and got a decent Computer Studies BSc degree. It never stood me one damned bit of good, because before, during and after my studies, companies are still holding to the mantra "We need two years' experience in [name the technology]." I have seen employers asking blithely for "two years' experience" in technologies invented six months ago, so "experience" is not the issue.

I have come to the conclusion that, like desperate people in their forties still holding out for their One True Love and still staying single, employers are looking for someone who will come on like Neo from The Matrix, yet look, speak, think and get paid like Wally from the Dilbert strip.

I think the degree puts the "hard working, white collar, self-made man, bucked my own goat, got myself to where I am from nothing, Essex barrow boy, yadda yadda" interviewers off their stride. Some misplaced sense of snobbery, perhaps. I have seen them snap at me, yet treat a candidate with only a minor diploma with kid gloves.

And as for what I've done with myself since I got my degree ... applied for, literally, more than a thousand jobs, attended countless business breakfasts, attended VIP private viewings of art exhibits, appeared in front of and behind a TV camera, done a stint on a radio show as a presenter, given classes, studied languages, mathematics, poetry and art, seen my writings published in a number of different places, and taught my nephew stick fighting for his drama class.

Plus, I had the time somewhere to fit in some coding.

Unemployable? Lacking in initiative? Hardly.

They are not mutually exclusive, but it's a matter of degree. Someone who is exclusively self-taught has the potential to demonstrate more initiative.