[geeks] [rescue] Mainframe on eBay

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Sat, 24 Sep 2005, Mike Meredith wrote:

> I'm not sure you could ever say that years at 'school' equate to years
> of work experience (did you mean to say N and M ?).

Nope, I meant N and N.  Somone with four years of school probably has
more structured theoretical knowledge on a subject, whereas someone with
four years of experience (the first of which were mostly bumbling
about), has more real-world experience.  I'd suspect most reasonably-
bright individuals can figure out the missing half of things eventually.

> I'm probably on the verge of rambling (*) but is it possible that
> years at school magnify years of experience ?

It would depend on the quality of schooling.

> As in the theoretical knowledge you acquire at a University allows you
> to get more out of a year at work than someone without that theory ?

Why could folks not intuit that sort of thing?

> As in you get someone to write some code at an interview ?

Absolutely!  Or, at the very least give detailed pseudocode on how to
solve the problem.  If the candidate really lives and breathes code,
it'll even make the interview more enjoyable.  At least, that's always
been my experience.

-- 
Jonathan Patschke   )  "When we are young, wandering the face of the
Elgin, TX          (    earth, wondering what our dreams might be worth,
USA                 )   learning that we're only immortal--for a limited
                    (    time."                              --Neil Peart