[skinkestek]

> There is usually a baseline level of knowledge and skill expected even from a fresh coding bootcamp grad. If they’re not familiar with certain fundamental concepts, answering some of their questions can be frustrating for more senior colleagues.

Many schools seems to take pride in not teaching you how it is really done.

Banning IDEs is a classic.

A friend of mine got some remarks after I'd helped him: I'd introduced him to the BlockedQueue in Java and he wasn't supposed to know about that.

> Business domain knowledge or company-specific tooling is a different thing, but even there, some people tend to avoid note-taking (or looking up documentation), which can result in them repeatedly asking the exact same questions.

My current client actually praises me for just being honest and saying that the existing documentation isn't good enough.

YMMW but many times the training you get for the business specific part you get is awful or non existent and the documentation consist of whatever the previous person (who invented the tool/procedure/whatever) needed to remember.

[watwut]

> Banning IDEs is a classic

I never heard of that.

[TeMPOraL]

I can imagine reasoning behind that, at least today.

Last year, I've been tutoring a teenager who wanted to take CS on his maturity exam[0]. The exam has a theoretical (algorithms, knowledge) and practical (programming, data science, databases) parts; for the latter, you're expected to write some code in one of several approved languages, using one of several sets of approved tooling (which includes FOSS tooling).

My student wanted to use C++, and thus had a choice between Visual C++, DevC++ and CodeBlocks. It's quite obvious that one of these three is entirely not like the others. Between advanced IntelliSense, errors being flagged as you type, limited on-the-fly static analysis, and semantic suggestions[1], you don't have to know as much about C++ to succeed - the IDE will let you click your way into a working program.

All of these are very useful features when you already mostly know what you're doing. But if you're being tested for your knowledge? That defeats the assumptions of the exam, and of the educational framework behind it. Good education needs to walk a fine line of making sure the tooling augments, not replaces your understanding - so I can understand if some universities choose to skip IDEs initially, letting the students understand the problems their tools are solving for them.

--

[0] - aka. "matura", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matura#In_Poland. CS is one of the optional topics you can take, and since our universities don't do admission exams, your score on STEM topics on matura is important if you want to continue formal education in technical subjects.

[1] - Green, squiggly lines, programmer equivalent to grammar checks from Word :).

[mypastself]

I was hesitant to include the documentation part of my comment for the exact reasons you mention. In fact, documentation often is just somebody’s notes.