Comment Re:whatever happened to training? (Score 1) 444
I'm a senior software engineer at a network equipment company.
We experimented a bit ago by hiring a bright fpga guy (one who could tell a good design from a bad one) who was bored with hardware for a software position, even though he didn't have much experience with software development or networking.
That's been very successful, and next time we're off our hiring freeze, I'm going to try to make it happen more often.
I can't count how many interviews I've been through with some guy with a master's degree and a resume that reads like they've been training for our open position for 8 years, only to find out they can't troubleshoot anything tricky, can't catch reasoning flaws, and can't tell the difference between an elegant solution and a spaghetti nightmare.
I'd so much rather have somebody who needs some basic knowledge hand-holding for a few months, but often has good insights in a high level discussion, and just keeps on getting better at the coding part.
We experimented a bit ago by hiring a bright fpga guy (one who could tell a good design from a bad one) who was bored with hardware for a software position, even though he didn't have much experience with software development or networking.
That's been very successful, and next time we're off our hiring freeze, I'm going to try to make it happen more often.
I can't count how many interviews I've been through with some guy with a master's degree and a resume that reads like they've been training for our open position for 8 years, only to find out they can't troubleshoot anything tricky, can't catch reasoning flaws, and can't tell the difference between an elegant solution and a spaghetti nightmare.
I'd so much rather have somebody who needs some basic knowledge hand-holding for a few months, but often has good insights in a high level discussion, and just keeps on getting better at the coding part.
