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Why I’m Not Looking to Hire Computer-Science Majors

wsj.com

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Re: Why I’m Not Looking to Hire Computer-Science Majors

#3
> A junior developer fresh out of college can expect to earn around $10,000 monthly, plus benefits, a $100,000 signing bonus and $200,000 in stock options.

Maybe I'm out of touch with the realities of the world, being an ancient 31-year old PHP/Java developer who's never written a line of something cool like Go in his life, but an expectation of $10k post-tax right out of college doesn't seem like a realistic expectation for every graduate.

Re: Why I’m Not Looking to Hire Computer-Science Majors

#6

> A junior developer fresh out of college can expect to earn around $10,000 monthly, plus benefits, a $100,000 signing bonus and $200,000 in stock options. Maybe I'm out of touch with the realities of the world, being an ancient 31-year old PHP/Java developer who's never written a line of something cool like Go in his life, but an expectation of $10k post-tax right out of college doesn't seem like a realistic expecta…

In the midwest, a dev with no professional experience straight out of college can expect to earn around $3,450 monthly (post-tax), plus benefits, no signing bonus, and no stock options.

Re: Why I’m Not Looking to Hire Computer-Science Majors

#7
Wow what a ridiculous article. For starters, only an extremely small slice of fresh-out-of-college developers would get a 120k salary and 300k in bonus and options. This is still absurdly high, if it's even true (and not exaggerated for the purpose of getting an article into the WSJ). I've noticed a sharp uptick in CS grads, and it seems starting salaries are actually nosing downwards. Or at least that's the case here in Boston.

This article is nonsense, and whoever the author is, I guarantee you he has no idea what he's doing.

Re: Why I’m Not Looking to Hire Computer-Science Majors

#10
Yet another example of someone mixing the concepts of scientist, engineer, and technician in the computing world.

You wouldn't hire a food scientist to control and feed the machines that produce the bread in an industrial bakery, or even to design and build that production line. Producing code is not as closely related as one might think to the science that leads to the algorithms and design patterns that underscore the languages and frameworks that enable the tools and techniques ultimately used by those who produce code.

The sooner all concerned (me, you, academics, entrepreneurs, employers) settle on a suitable terminology for what it is that computer scientists, software engineers, and developers need to learn to do what they do, the sooner we can get past this type of article.

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