There is a nice infographics by Brand24.pl about the impact Startup Weekend Warsaw generated http://twitpic.com/4ym3so!

It is difficult to get past the HR doorman indeed - because of "non-programming programmers" (CodingHorror). The answer to that are tools for automated verification of programming skills like Codility (http://codility.com/), which value fundamental coding skills over the school's brand and proficiency in CV writing!

Definitely - the key is to have fundamental programming skills, so to be able to solve given problems by writing an efficient code. I'm running Codility, a company providing automated online tests for programming job candidates - you may want to take a demo test at http://codility.com/ yourself :).