Is there a STEM worker shortage?
blog.vivekhaldar.com
Is there a STEM worker shortage?
1–10 of 80 posts
Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#2tl;dr: there is no shortage, its just that most candidates are crap
Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#3This guy linked to the IEEE Spectrum article, but I don't think he read it, because they address the issue about defining STEM workers, and despite his anecdotal evidence, they came to the conclusion that, yes, the STEM shortage is a myth.
Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#4Easy explanation is that there are a ton of people holding a STEM-related diploma but absolutely inept in this profession not even trying to compete. I know that from every class of software engineers in Russia, couple guys make a successful career, couple more become mediocre coders, couple more try for a while give up, rest not even bother...
Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#5Easy explanation is that there are a ton of people holding a STEM-related diploma but absolutely inept in this profession not even trying to compete. I know that from every class of software engineers in Russia, couple guys make a successful career, couple more become mediocre coders, couple more try for a while give up, rest not even bother...
Exactly. I've interviewed recent UC Berkeley EECS [1] graduates and found they couldn't write a line of code, and Berkeley is a top 10 engineering and top 10 computer science school (or at least was a the time; haven't checked rankings recently).
[1] Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; their B.S. degree in computer science. I think they have a B.A. as well.
Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#6vivek haldar....
Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#7tl;dr: there is no shortage, its just that most candidates are crap
And the real reason that the "candidates are crap" is that too many employers no longer spend the time and resources to train their workers properly. Instead employees are expected to get hired with insanely specific skills and "hit the ground running" working for some clueless line and project managers who don't give a damn about what happens outside of their small-minded metrics.
Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#8Easy explanation is that there are a ton of people holding a STEM-related diploma but absolutely inept in this profession not even trying to compete. I know that from every class of software engineers in Russia, couple guys make a successful career, couple more become mediocre coders, couple more try for a while give up, rest not even bother...
Exactly. I've interviewed recent UC Berkeley EECS [1] graduates and found they couldn't write a line of code, and Berkeley is a top 10 engineering and top 10 computer science school (or at least was a the time; haven't checked rankings recently). [1] Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; their B.S. degree in computer science. I think they have a B.A. as well.
Come on... do you _REALLY_ mean they can't write a line of code? I find that hard to believe.
Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#9This guy linked to the IEEE Spectrum article, but I don't think he read it, because they address the issue about defining STEM workers, and despite his anecdotal evidence, they came to the conclusion that, yes, the STEM shortage is a myth.
No, they don't address the issue in that article, they carefully circumvent it. Like all shortage-denial articles, they focus on education rather than actual practical competence.
There is no shortage of STEM graduates. There is a shortage of people actually capable of doing the jobs which, amongst other things, require a STEM background. And for most software development jobs, the latter isn't even the most important qualification.
The STEM shortage is a myth created by people who want to deny that there is a shortage of qualified knowledge workers by equating "qualified" to having a STEM degree.
Nobody actually in the business ever complained about a STEM shortage. We complain about a shortage of competent people.
Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#10tl;dr: there is no shortage, its just that most candidates are crap
And the real reason that the "candidates are crap" is that too many employers no longer spend the time and resources to train their workers properly. Instead employees are expected to get hired with insanely specific skills and "hit the ground running" working for some clueless line and project managers who don't give a damn about what happens outside of their small-minded metrics.
If you're not studying stuff related to what you want to do when you get out of college, on your spare time during studies, you're already losing. It's not enough to come out as a grad. You need to set your sights on a very specific job, and start learning for it. All throughout my undergrad I studied mobile to death and did a ton of work in it. Had no problem landing a 150k+ job right out of undergrad, because I was incredibly skilled.
Not too many companies care about your GPA + the courses you did, the ones that do, will put you into a mediocre role loosely related to your profession since you have no specialty.