Do Businesses Really Need to Hire CS Majors? (cio.com)

A new article in CIO magazine argues that when it comes to computer science, "few of us really need much of any of it." Slashdot reader itwbennett offers this summary: At the heart of the matter is the fact that most businesses don't really need programmers to be deep thinkers. For them, it's "just as worthwhile to hire someone from a physics lab who just used Python to massage some data streams from an instrument. They can learn the shallow details just as readily as the CS genius," according to the article.
CIO's anonymous author promises an incomplete list of "why we may be better off ignoring CS majors." Some of the highlights:

• Theory distracts and confuses. "Many computer scientists are mathematicians at heart and the theorem-obsessed mindset permeates the discipline."

• Academic languages are rarely used. "...the academy breeds snobbery and a love for arcane solutions."

• Many CS professors are mathematicians, not programmers. "One of the dirty secrets about most computer science departments is that most of the professors can't program computers. Their real job is giving lectures and wrangling grants...."

• Many required subjects are rarely used. "...it's too bad few of us use many data structures any more."

• Institutions breed arrogance. "...the very nature of academic degrees are designed to give graduates the ability to argue one's superiority with authority. "

• Many modern skills are ignored. "If you want to understand Node.js, React, game design or cloud computation, you'll find very little of it in the average curriculum... It's very common for computer science departments to produce deep thinkers who understand some of the fundamental challenges without any shallow knowledge of the details that dominate the average employee's day."

"It's not that CS degrees are bad," the article concludes. "It's just that they're not going to speak to the problems that most of us need to solve."

Comments

No! Just use open source

[Anonymous Coward]

The whole point of open source is that the software is already written. Just need to put it together like Lego blocks. CS Major won't help. Outsource the development and it will be done in no time.

Re:No! Just use open source

[PolygamousRanchKid]

The whole point of open source is that the software is already written. Just need to put it together like Lego blocks.

Software development will soon be replaced by automated AI Blockchain technology, which googles and copies & pastes code blocks from Stackoverflow according to the natural language that you speak to Alexa.

There will be no need to understand what gets copied . . . the Blockchain AI will understand it for you!

. . . and then Alexa will say, "Thank you for ordering an Obamacare Website!"

"Customers who ordered Obamacare Websites have also ordered Triple-Headed Dildos."

"Add to Shopping Basket . . . ?"

Bitter much?

[locater16]

Is this written by some guy that can't get a programming job because he doesn't have a degree?
"Wah, they're all elitist nerds. Now I have to write for this stupid website to pay rent. They're the stupid ones, not me! Why don't I get paid $200k a year? Wahh!"

Re:Depends on if you want good software or not.

[Tough Love]

Let the physics major debug it, thereby proving themselves.

Re: Heh

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot the part where they are running production databases on Microsoft Access.

Re: Heh

[Anonymous Coward]

Thatâ(TM)s where they keep the spreadsheets.

Re:Heh

[Oligonicella]

no-one in their right mind would buy what they ended up with.

So, Frank Lloyd Wright?