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LinkedIn Testing 1970's-Style No-CS-Degree-Required Software Apprenticeships (mercurynews.com)
theodp writes: The Mercury News reports on REACH, a new software apprenticeship program that LinkedIn's engineering team started piloting this month, which offers people without Computer Science degrees an opportunity to get a foot in the door, as Microsoft-owned LinkedIn searches for ways to help diversify its workforce. For now, the 29 REACH participants are paid, but are only short-term LinkedIn employees (for the duration of the 6-month program). LinkedIn indicated it hopes to learn if tech internships could eventually be made part of the regular hiring process, perhaps unaware that no-CS-degree-required hiring for entry-level permanent positions in software development was standard practice in the 70's and 80's, back when women made up almost 40% of those working as programmers and in software-related fields, nearly double the percentage of women in LinkedIn's global 2016 tech workforce. Hey, even in tech hiring, everything old is new again!
In the 1970s, you didn't even have to prove that. An older cousin of mine worked as a secretary at an engineering firm, and every few months they would ask for secretaries who wanted to switch to engineering. She signed up, and went from making coffee and typing messages for a manager to being an assembly programmer. They taught her what she needed to know, and she worked at it until she retired with her pension.
The reason Silicon Valley wants H1-B visas is that the idea of hiring someone and training them for a few years is alien to them. Forty years ago employees had the promise of a pension holding them to the company. "I might be able to get 20% better pay at the other place, but if I stay here another 22 years I can retire on 60% of my retirement age pay. Woo hoo!" Since you can take a 401k with you when you quit a job, now a company that trains someone for two years is likely to lose them to a competitor that pays better.
See, supply and demand is good when it works in favor of the shareholders. When it operates in favor of the workforce, that's bad and laws need to be passed to import foreign labor and fix the problem.
Oh the irony of a website that presents its members as basically a resumee decides to ignore resumees....
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
It's a piece of paper that says "You can work hard, study, make your own mind up and evaluate things critically, research and a whole host of other extremely advantageous traits while operating in a field of rigor and discipline". Coupled with the experience that also says "I can do the job you're asking me to do as described".
It's a piece of paper that says a lot...
I have a CompSci degree from a few years back, and it was heavy coding/dev/math. There is no way you could have gotten through the degree and been unable to program. I have run into recent CompSci graduates who have a hard time or can't write code, and don't even like coding. What has changed in the curriculum? Has CompSci become the catchall for 'I want a computer degree'? With that sort of expectation, I can see why I'd rather hire someone excited about dev work, than someone who has it on paper but no urge or drive or skill.
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
The reason Silicon Valley wants H1-B visas is that the idea of hiring someone and training them for a few years is alien to them.
Many companies have the lifespan of a mayfly and can't train properly anyone since they won't be in business in two years time. As for H1-B visas they constitute a tiny part of the total tech employment market in the US and don't noticeably depress salary levels but they're a good scapegoat for some folks who can't find that perfect 200k a year job churning out basic DBA apps for financial services, because "the Other took my job!"
In addition to your irony, TFA ignores some pretty important facts. In the 1970s we had Math, Engineering, and Physics. There was no such thing as a CS degree. One learned to code because it helped your education, not because it was seen as a cash cow specialty. The successful coders may not have all completed a degree, but were all the brightest of the bunch in College. If they left without a degree it was by choice, not because they lacked aptitude to finish.
Let me use a Basketball analogy. Linked in believes that anyone can be Shawn Kemp, or another player that never played college ball and was not highly educated. In reality, the Shawn Kemp like people are extremely rare. About 1 in a billion.
Can linked in find people "good enough" to get a job done without? Probably, but I would rather have people better than "good enough" as a hiring manager.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.