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by eldavido 2710 days ago
Don't generalize. Are you interviewing graduates from the top 10-15 programs or lesser-tier?

I think this is a big error people make. Some colleges are great. Others are horrible. It's very hard to say, "College is a waste" or "college is great".
2 comments
nradov 2710 days ago
It's not even a matter of tiers. There are plenty of great candidates coming out of lower rated schools, although the hit rate is lower.

In general interviewers just have unrealistic expectations for entry level candidates. They forget how incompetent they were at the same age. Or they have ridiculous notions that everyone should know how to write a quicksort algorithm or whatever, when some students may have focused their studies on other (but equally challenging) topics.

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geggam 2710 days ago
I expect you to know fundamentals about things like TCP networking and how to install, configure and manage Linux Distributions.

I find many people who can install Ubuntu and run the canned commands or curl foo.sh | sudo bash or docker / k8s scripts they download, think they know what they are doing.

They dont.

Its getting to the point someone who can install windows is more technical than someone who can install linux

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nradov 2709 days ago
Your expectations are unrealistic and counterproductive. Bachelor's degree programs shouldn't be teaching students how to install Linux. That's just job training, not education.
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Latteland 2708 days ago
Agree, installing linux is IT, not normally in the background of CS. It's not that hard, devs could figure it out. Yes, I built my own machines because that was a lot cheaper. But no one taught me that in my cs program.
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geggam 2708 days ago
When the job is managing Linux systems and colleges arent producing people who know how there is a problem
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nradov 2707 days ago
Bachelor's degree programs aren't intended to provide job training on narrow technical skills that will probably be obsolete in a few years anyway. If you want entry level Linux sysadmins then hire college graduates with the right aptitude and train them, or recruit from community colleges which do provide technical job training.
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geggam 2710 days ago
Did the interviews in Silicon Valley. MIT UCLA Stanford Berkley are some of the grads I interviewed.
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