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Software Engineering Grads Lack the Skills Startups Need

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Re: Software Engineering Grads Lack the Skills Startups Need

#2
“When you join a startup, there’s a lot of emphasis on the design of the application, reusability and clean code, and the ability to conduct and undergo code reviews, as well as the ability to think of and build systems that can scale based on users and geography,” he says.

I got a good, long laugh out of this. This describes the exact opposite of my experience in a startup. None of those things were ever a concern until I worked for a company that already had a revenue stream.

Re: Software Engineering Grads Lack the Skills Startups Need

#3

“When you join a startup, there’s a lot of emphasis on the design of the application, reusability and clean code, and the ability to conduct and undergo code reviews, as well as the ability to think of and build systems that can scale based on users and geography,” he says. I got a good, long laugh out of this. This describes the exact opposite of my experience in a startup. None of those things were ever a concern u…

I would best describe software development at startups as speed jenga. The cool thing is the objective of the game isn’t to build a functioning tower but to instead convince more people to join the game.

Re: Software Engineering Grads Lack the Skills Startups Need

#5
I think that at an even more basic level than hard skills, some graduates lack knowledge in things like basic problem solving, abstract thinking or the ability to switch between languages quickly. It's interesting to see how straight-A students who study well and test well don't make the transition from the academic environment to a job.

Re: Software Engineering Grads Lack the Skills Startups Need

#6

“When you join a startup, there’s a lot of emphasis on the design of the application, reusability and clean code, and the ability to conduct and undergo code reviews, as well as the ability to think of and build systems that can scale based on users and geography,” he says. I got a good, long laugh out of this. This describes the exact opposite of my experience in a startup. None of those things were ever a concern u…

I mean, early stage startups fit your description, sure ... but I can't imagine many startups surviving much traction if those things don't start being looked at soon enough. Of course, some do (see twitter's Fail Whale), but I'm guessing the vast majority of startups that fail to scale ... well, they fail

Re: Software Engineering Grads Lack the Skills Startups Need

#8
This is a valid reason to consider a trade school model ("coding bootcamps") to fill this niche. Let Computer Science programs focus on the Computer "Science", while trade schools focus on fulfilling direct company needs.

Of course, we need a _ton_ more oversight involved to ensure that bootcamps are actually graduating people with a job-ready skillset.

Re: Software Engineering Grads Lack the Skills Startups Need

#9

This is a valid reason to consider a trade school model ("coding bootcamps") to fill this niche. Let Computer Science programs focus on the Computer "Science", while trade schools focus on fulfilling direct company needs. Of course, we need a _ton_ more oversight involved to ensure that bootcamps are actually graduating people with a job-ready skillset.

This won’t happen until the signalling that comes with hiring from [elite school] diminishes and/or the signalling that comes with hiring from [code bootcamp] surpasses it.

Re: Software Engineering Grads Lack the Skills Startups Need

#10
Really? Cause it seems, based on my interviews, startups couldn't care less about my background in leading customers through beta demos, collaborating with scientists, participating in sales presentations and outreach, writing documentation, or any of the issues described here.

They do seem awful interested in whether I can find all matching subtrees in a binary tree, though. Which, now that I think about, is the one thing I learned in college but haven't done even once on the job once in 20 years (I have had to find minimum cost paths in a tree, though. I couldn't have done it on the spot at the whiteboard, but my data structures and algorithms class was helpful in researching and figuring it out years later).

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