Re: Experience vs College Degree

Booth,

You are correct.  Perhaps I should have said "experience & expertise."  I
have interviewed candidates who had lots of experience, but that I knew
(after the interview) would be great coders, but had not developed the
critical thinking skills required to really do analyst work.  And I've met
other candidates that had much less experience, but were thirsty for
knowledge and good problem solvers.  And you are correct - the successful
candidates generally bring along code or bring up a project during the
interview that they have worked on and can "talk tech" about.  Since in
those cases I was hiring for the long-term I had to ask myself who would be
more productive in six months or a years time.

Chuck

----- Original Message -----
From: "Booth Martin" <Booth@MartinVT.com>
To: <midrange-l@midrange.com>
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2002 4:17 PM
Subject: Re: Experience vs College Degree


>
> It is bothering me to see people talk loosely about experience.  I know a
> programmer that's programmed since 1981.  He now has one year of
experience
> 19 times, going on 20.
>
> What has amazed me through nearly all interviews I've ever been involved
in
> though, is the lack of interest in a program portfolio.  I always take a
> sample of recent coding I've done (personal, not property of any client)
to
> show my level of skill and my style.  The only technical question I ever
> remember hearing was "Do you know what a data queque is"
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> Booth Martin   http://www.MartinVT.com
> Booth@MartinVT.com
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>