Comment Re:Starting Salaries (Score 1) 715
The hands-on experience is always helpful. My experience is that most folks out of college are now ready to learn, not ready to contribute meaningfully, and even that is more a result of attitude. Some feel they're ready to teach us folks on the front lines a few things or two.
Having said that, I've seen that many good colleges have a co-op program: students work two or three semesters with a real-world company, getting paid to work as a normal worker. The pay is lower, but the idea is to train these students to function in the real world. It's a variant on the old idea of apprenticeship, but it's very efective. It allows some companies to vet possible candidates, and it gives the participants some meaningful backgroun. My daughter has participated in the program at Texas A&M, in Computer Engineering, and benefitted enormously by it.
I'm always much more interested when a candidate has had a co-op experience. At that point, they're much closer to contributing meaningfully to our situation.
Having said that, I've seen that many good colleges have a co-op program: students work two or three semesters with a real-world company, getting paid to work as a normal worker. The pay is lower, but the idea is to train these students to function in the real world. It's a variant on the old idea of apprenticeship, but it's very efective. It allows some companies to vet possible candidates, and it gives the participants some meaningful backgroun. My daughter has participated in the program at Texas A&M, in Computer Engineering, and benefitted enormously by it.
I'm always much more interested when a candidate has had a co-op experience. At that point, they're much closer to contributing meaningfully to our situation.
