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Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

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Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#471

Post by 0xCMP »

Y7ZCQtNo39 wrote: post #456
0xCMP wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"novel = of value" in this case. Fill in the blank programs ("Here's the skeleton, make it display a list") and 3 projects with < 200 lines that aren't doing something CS specific are not novel, but all too common and wide spread.

A lot of things of business value go like this, for example: go build this UI in React, etc. You don't need the ability to significantly return something back to academia to do that. You just need good coding mechanics.

Not the point: college is for CS. Not for "building on the work of others." You learn the basics that everyone needs to do the advanced work. If that isn't needed/useful then you need a vocational school instead of a CS program.

Making people do continual simple demos and nonsense programs instead of teaching them actual CS is BS. They can be simple programs, they don't need to build huge things, but what they build should reveal and teach them things beyond how to shift text around the screen.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#472

Post by 51stpage »

_wp3r wrote: post #424
blurbleblurble wrote: post #73

> Companies find it incredibly hard to reliably staff positions with hard-working generalists who operate autonomously and have high risk tolerances. This is not the modal employee, including at places which are justifiably proud of the skill/diligence/etc of their employees. This one. Every job I see when I go looking is 40+ hrs a week, likely with plenty of idle time and projects I don't believe in. Part of this is…

It would rarely be effective to market yourself as a generalist on paper. If you have 3 primary skill sets you should have 3 focused resumes. If you want a position that requires a generalist, the only/best fit would be founder. In almost all other circumstances, companies hire for a problem and not general optimizations. Even if they need a generalist. I would posit that you have a marketing problem and not a skills…

Your assertion about generalist ~= founder is pretty spot on. I've spent decades working lots of different job titles that interest me (or as the needs of the organization dictated). Putting all that down on my resume hasn't helped me much.

I was heading the direction of very focused resumes. I've also landed a low pressure founder role too, so that's nice.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#474

Post by Terr_ »

heurist wrote: post #467
Terr_ wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If they were truly experienced, they would be getting poached or going through a headhunter. Huh, is that very common? As someone with 10 years of experience but very little job-hopping (perhaps to my detriment) I always had this feeling that recruiters were a bit like dodgy car salesman, and that a direct application would be better.

Good recruiters are excellent networkers who are in touch with the most exciting businesses in your area and field of expertise. I've only met one but if I ever find myself looking for a job then I'll be talking with him.

What I meant is whether there is really that much of a bias against experienced direct applicants.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#475

Post by School-Cotton »

WalterBright wrote: post #118
auxym wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meh, at least my (mechanical engineering) degree wasn't. Sure, you learn some mathematical tools that can help you solve some very practical problems, but it stops about there. I was not taught anything close to creative mathematical thinking. I was never taught the fundamentals of things: the axioms and the theorems on which the tools we "learn" are based on. I can guarantee you no one in my graduating class could r…

My engineering classes (Caltech) were nearly all applied math classes.

“Applied math” isn’t very similar to what you learn in a reputable math degree, so the point stands.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#476

Post by School-Cotton »

edanm wrote: post #161
dsp1234 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your average undergrad program... CS degree never doing anything novel in CS Is this different than any other field? I was under the impression that most BS programs do not require novel research. That doesn't come until post graduate courses.

I think it doesn't come until a second degree, or sometimes a graduate degree. Not post graduate.

Something was lost in translation here. Graduate degree and postgraduate degree mean the same thing, at least in the US.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#478

Post by valuearb »

bambax wrote: post #451
valuearb wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Terrible analogy. Nazi execution was horrible post invasion of France. Hitler's conservative generals hadn't foreseen how effective their blitzkrieg tactics were at the beginning of the war. That justified his own delusional view of his own greatness and Nazi superiority, even though he & the Nazi's had nothing to do with the success, it came from german armies brilliant strategies/tactics/training/soldiers and prepa…

Most of these examples are strategic mistakes, not execution. Execution means, the ability to do what you set out to do. Not focusing on the right objective is not, IMHO, an execution problem. It's a vision problem, a leadership failure.

Hitler personally controlling movement of units on the eastern front, causing massive traffic jams and misallocations of fuel was clearly an execution issue.

But much of what I wrote above was also an execution issue. Making oil fields a number one priority was an obviously correct decision for the army generals. Not being allowed to do it because of diverted resources was an execution issue.

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#479

Post by closeparen »

_wp3r wrote: post #424
blurbleblurble wrote: post #73

> Companies find it incredibly hard to reliably staff positions with hard-working generalists who operate autonomously and have high risk tolerances. This is not the modal employee, including at places which are justifiably proud of the skill/diligence/etc of their employees. This one. Every job I see when I go looking is 40+ hrs a week, likely with plenty of idle time and projects I don't believe in. Part of this is…

It would rarely be effective to market yourself as a generalist on paper. If you have 3 primary skill sets you should have 3 focused resumes. If you want a position that requires a generalist, the only/best fit would be founder. In almost all other circumstances, companies hire for a problem and not general optimizations. Even if they need a generalist. I would posit that you have a marketing problem and not a skills…

If you've worked in the different specialties at different jobs (rather than interleaving all 3), won't focused resumes have glaring temporal holes in them?

Re: Things Many People Find Too Obvious to Have Told You Already

#480

Post by closeparen »

Bromskloss wrote: post #356
School-Cotton wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it is not. I studied math and the engineers only went as far as differential equations, basic (non proof based) complex analysis, and so on. There were zero engineers in theoretical classes.

> non proof based What's that about? Does the lecturer just state theorems without proving them, or does it mean that the students aren't required to be able to prove them?

It means the activity of the class (lectures, homework, exams) is to compute numeric and algebraic solutions according to the methods and procedures you're taught. The outcome of a class is generally that you're able to solve a new kind of equation.

This describes 99% of the math that most Americans (including engineering students) who are not math majors will ever encounter. Proofs may be presented as curiosities, and students may even be quizzed on them, but students would not be expected to come up with proofs they haven't seen before.

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