robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/america-rip/
Get out.
Is there a STEM worker shortage?
61–70 of 80 posts
Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow, I didn't realize it was quite so bad everywhere. This really shows how desperately reform in the education sector is needed. Especially the last part, a student brimming with talent turned away and potentially changing fields because of it. That's scary.
maybe I'm being pessimistic, she got into an good school that I respect, she just - deserves more. EDIT: I guess I could be more specific. In the state of california, there is the Cal State system and the UC system, the UC system is considered to be the "top tier" system, and the CS system is widely considered to be "slightly less than". She got into a CS engineering program, that I happen to think creates a substant…
> In the state of california, there is the Cal State system and the UC system, the UC system is considered to be the "top tier" system, and the CS system is widely considered to be "slightly less than".
The CSU system is designed to accept the top 1/3 of California high school students, the UC system the top 1/8, so, as a system, UC is by design more "elite". But that doesn't mean that all UC campuses are (or even are intended to be) superior to all CSU campuses in all programs, and certain CSU campuses are very well regarded for certain programs.
(This is particularly true, IIRC, of certain CSU campuses undergraduate engineering programs.)
Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#63Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
>We tend to consider anyone outside the top 20% to be entirely, unredeemably incompetent. The trouble is, in software, single individuals in that top 20% are capable of doing things in a short time that individuals from the bottom 80% couldn't do in 1000 man years. Software is funny like that, some people can think different kinds of thoughts. So in a way, for certain values of incompetent, this is actually true.
In which case, merely adding more software developers won't help the problem. You need to add more people of the quality of the current top 20%, thus expanding that to "top 30%", "top 40%", and eventually the actual majority, hopefully.
I'm not quite sure why I collected the downvotes, but you're spot on. For example, I'm short and relatively uncoordinated. I have a few chronic physical problems in addition to this that make me "unredeemably incompetent" at the sport of basketball. I could work my ass off for the rest of my life and still never come within shouting distance of Michael Jordan. I simply cannot perform at an NBA level no matter what I do.
If there were a shortage of talented basketball players, it wouldn't matter how many copies of myself you were able to get into basketball training programs, you'd never get an MJ. We need a better system to find MJ's of STEM and allow their talent to work for us.
Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#65Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
IDK, I could see this the other way around too. If you are currently doing the job, then you must be qualified for it, or are soon to be fired. There are probably some small percentage of people who just slide under the radar, but I would think if you were entirely incompetent and unable to do your job you would not last long.
sometimes it's not trivial to fire people, because lawyers could get involved.
In most of the US, you just walk into an employee's office and tell them they are fired. If you tell them a reason that is discriminatory, prepare to be sued, but most of the time you are not required to give them any reason at all.
Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
None of the lines that were requested anyway.
Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only thing that came to mind was that MOST of the craigslist postings were fradulent, just like my friend's. This is the basic assumption, yes. It's why most of us don't job-hunt on Craigslist.
Ok, so where do we all job hunt, and how can we do this again? The info there is of great value for applicants.
I typically find a company I like, then send them an email expressing interest.
Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't craigslist about the bottom of the barrel in terms of job advertising? I'd be pretty sceptical applying for a job posted there.
Why? Identity theft? Where are good places to job hunt then?
I would just expect a person posting a job on Craigslist to be out to scam me or have no idea of how expensive software is. No one wants to waste their time filtering through the postings asking them to rebuild facebook for $100.
Re: Is there a STEM worker shortage?
#70I'm the lead developer at a tech startup in Silicon Valley and I interview about 2-3x a week. There is definitely a shortage of competent workers here. We will typically extend an offer to about 1 out of every 5 candidates because they just can't code or don't have the experience in the technologies we use. I've learned that resumes are very puffed up and that having a college degree really doesn't make much differen…
1 in 5 sounds pretty good to me. You could hire someone new every ~1.5 weeks.