[Taek]

As someone who has been trying to hire CS talent, I can say that most of my interviews have been pretty underwhelming. Maybe 10% possess the level of talent and interest that we're looking for, and as few as 50% can even code fibbonacci. Like 20% are able to write a successful nlogn sort. And that's after I tell them that sorting will be a part of their interview!

I'm not sure that more schooling is the answer, but I do feel like we are always strapped for talent. The people who pass are usually spent a significant amount of time teaching themselves.

[rayiner]

More schooling is definitely not the answer. By your numbers, funneling more kids into CS programs is creating 9 extra employable graduates with debt for every 1 extra graduate worth hiring.

[ap22213]

How many people do you interview annually? Do you happen to keep metrics of what things your top performers did well at the interview? I'm curious to know if implementing a sort correlates with performance.

I've probably done > 100 interviews, and it's hard to see the correlations. Man, I so wish I would have kept records.

Of the many people that I've worked with, I'd say < 0.5% have been 3x programmers, maybe 5% have been 2x programmers, 20% have been 1x programmers, and the rest have been ... meh. (In comparison to me, and I'd guess that I'm probably a 3x programmer.) And, ALMOST ALL of these people had successfully passed an algorithm and programming based interview.

[nommm-nommm]

>Maybe 10% possess the level of talent and interest that we're looking for

I am curious how you judge "interest."

[brapadap]

have you tried recruiting people without CS degrees?