Thursday 13 September 2012

InfoWorld Programming trends: Education matters less, more JVM/JavaScript-target languages

I found this piece at Infoworld really interesting. Originally, I was going to blog on it because of the growing trend of languages that target the JVM or JavaScript — what are the implications about Java and JavaScript when there’s so much interest in creating specialized languages on top of them? But then I got to Programming Trend #8 and realized that this was really a piece for us to talk about — does traditional computing education matter anymore?

Ask any project manager and they’ll say there’s not enough talent from top-tier computer science departments. They may go so far as to say they would hire a new CS major from a top school without reading the résumé. But ask this same desperate project manager about a middle-aged programmer with a degree from the same school, and they’ll hesitate and start mumbling about getting back to you later. Indeed, it isn’t unheard of to find major technology companies complaining to Congress that they can’t find Americans capable of programming, all while defending themselves in age-discrimination lawsuits from older programmers with stellar résumés and degrees from top universities.

Some of this may suggest that education doesn’t have the same value it used to hold. Older workers with degrees that used to be valuable are saying companies want only young, unfettered bodies that will work long hours. It leaves you to wonder whether it’s the age and implied lower pay expectations, not the knowledge that makes fresh college graduates so desirable.

Deepa Singh
Business Developer
Email Id:-deepa.singh@soarlogic.com

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