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by jrm4 141 days ago
As a college instructor, one issue I find fascinating is the idea that I'm supposed to care strongly about this.

I do not. This is your problem, companies. Now, I am aware that I have to give out grades and so I walk through the motions of doing this to the extent expected. But my goal is to instruct and teach all students to the best of my abilities to try to get them all to be as educated/useful to society as possible. Sure, you can have my little assessment at the end if you like, but I work for the students, not for the companies.
2 comments
Zababa 140 days ago
>Sure, you can have my little assessment at the end if you like, but I work for the students, not for the companies.

Most of the students are here because they want to be in the companies, not for the joy of learning.

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WalterBright 141 days ago
I didn't suggest you should care about company selection processes.

But I would have been pretty angry to have been educated in topics that did not turn out to be useful in industry. I deliberately selected courses that I figured would be the most useful in my career.

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jval43 141 days ago
If I could go back in time and change what courses I took for my CS degree, it would be the exact opposite.

I wish I'd gone more into theoretical computer science, quantum computing, cryptography, and in general just hard math and proofs.

I took a few such courses and some things have genuinely been useful to know about at work but were also mind-expanding new concepts. I would never ever have picked up those on the job.

Not to say the practical stuff hasn't been useful too (it has) but I feel confident I could pick up a new language easily anytime. Not so sure about formal proofs.

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jrm4 141 days ago
Right, but that is the thing I pay attention to. Again, I want to hear from former students that I did right by them, not current companies asking for free screening.
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rr808 141 days ago
As someone who interviews students for internships and grad programs I mostly agree, however I think you should listen to the best, hardest working students to hear if they're getting picked OK. I suspect the students with the best jobs are the ones who do the minimum classwork and spend their time doing leetcode and applying for jobs - I would think that is sub optimal for everyone including yourself.
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WalterBright 141 days ago
The GPA and course schedule should be sufficient.
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