Comments on: Most programming applicants can’t program? http://damieng.com/blog/2007/02/27/most-programming-applicants-cant-program?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=most-programming-applicants-cant-program A .NET developer in Redmond Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:45:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Spyros http://damieng.com/blog/2007/02/27/most-programming-applicants-cant-program#comment-27500 Spyros Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:42:15 +0000 http://damieng.com/blog/archive/2007/02/27/most-programming-applicants-cant-program.aspx#comment-27500 That's a really really simple program that shouldn't really take more than 2-3 minutes to write. I'm surprised that there are programming applicants that cannot do something so trivial. That’s a really really simple program that shouldn’t really take more than 2-3 minutes to write. I’m surprised that there are programming applicants that cannot do something so trivial.

]]> By: Chris http://damieng.com/blog/2007/02/27/most-programming-applicants-cant-program#comment-1809 Chris Thu, 01 Mar 2007 07:43:53 +0000 http://damieng.com/blog/archive/2007/02/27/most-programming-applicants-cant-program.aspx#comment-1809 Last night at the higher education fair in Guernsey the man from Cambridge University told me that when they recruit for the computer science course they would expect candidates to be 'real programmers' already. He defined this as 'people who can program from the bottom up' and 'not just surf the internet for snippets they then re-use'.<br /><br />Funny. Until that moment I always judged it the other way round when recruiting...<br /><br /> Last night at the higher education fair in Guernsey the man from Cambridge University told me that when they recruit for the computer science course they would expect candidates to be ‘real programmers’ already. He defined this as ‘people who can program from the bottom up’ and ‘not just surf the internet for snippets they then re-use’.

Funny. Until that moment I always judged it the other way round when recruiting…

]]> By: dies-el http://damieng.com/blog/2007/02/27/most-programming-applicants-cant-program#comment-1808 dies-el Wed, 28 Feb 2007 22:19:50 +0000 http://damieng.com/blog/archive/2007/02/27/most-programming-applicants-cant-program.aspx#comment-1808 Congrats on the new post Damien, but shame on you for not using Case!<br /><br />Andrew Congrats on the new post Damien, but shame on you for not using Case!

Andrew

]]> By: steve http://damieng.com/blog/2007/02/27/most-programming-applicants-cant-program#comment-1807 steve Wed, 28 Feb 2007 20:03:31 +0000 http://damieng.com/blog/archive/2007/02/27/most-programming-applicants-cant-program.aspx#comment-1807 Congrats on the new job!<br /><br />I was a software team manager for about 6 years, and we made all our potential programming recruits take an aptitude test that measured logical reasoning. We used it for well over 10 years (hell, I took it) and always found it really accurate. The bonus was that it could pick out people who would be good at coding if trained even if they hadn't done much of it before, and weeded out those that could pass the simple coding tests just by having done a little coding but didn't have the aptitude for the more complex stuff.<br /><br />We applied this universally and it helped level the playing field between those that were just good at interviews and those that had ability. We only ever had one person who was deeply offended at being asked to take such a test, and my personal feeling is it was because we'd called his bluff. Congrats on the new job!

I was a software team manager for about 6 years, and we made all our potential programming recruits take an aptitude test that measured logical reasoning. We used it for well over 10 years (hell, I took it) and always found it really accurate. The bonus was that it could pick out people who would be good at coding if trained even if they hadn’t done much of it before, and weeded out those that could pass the simple coding tests just by having done a little coding but didn’t have the aptitude for the more complex stuff.

We applied this universally and it helped level the playing field between those that were just good at interviews and those that had ability. We only ever had one person who was deeply offended at being asked to take such a test, and my personal feeling is it was because we’d called his bluff.

]]> By: Trebz http://damieng.com/blog/2007/02/27/most-programming-applicants-cant-program#comment-1806 Trebz Wed, 28 Feb 2007 19:02:08 +0000 http://damieng.com/blog/archive/2007/02/27/most-programming-applicants-cant-program.aspx#comment-1806 Hehe, you're <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ScottHanselman/~3/96902187/YouCantTeachHeightMeasuringProgrammerCompetenceViaFizzBuzz.aspx">naughty for solving it!</a> ;-) Hehe, you’re naughty for solving it! ;-)

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