That is what corporations have ALWAYS needed a(nd never gotten).
I went to a school that had a pretty decent CS program for its era. We studied Knuth (his third book had yet to be published) and were taught lots of neat theory, some of which was even useful.
But the skills that actually got me hired, so I could eat, were JCL, Assembler, and evidence that I had written some real-world, working programs that solved actual problems. None of that -- let me repeat for emphasis -- NONE of it! -- was learned in class. ALL of it was learned after hours, on my own time, in the computer center, from self-study and soliciting advice and help from people who already knew how.
Now, some of that early theory came in handy later on, no question. But only in the service of solving real world problems, which is the only thing anyone seems willing to actually pay me to do.
Your conclusion is a dead-on bull's-eye. Balance is the key. You need both. Both means "BOTH."
David At 09:54 AM 6/29/2006 -0500, you wrote:
Corporations today need CS graduates who are bright, educated, and well-balanced. This is not an either-or choice. Tom Harper NEON Enterprise Software, Inc IMS Utilities Development Team -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David Andrews Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2006 9:12 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Curiosity On Wed, 2006-06-28 at 17:09 -0500, Tom Harper wrote: > I've seen very few university-level computer science programs that are > effective, either for mainframes or non-mainframes. This conversation shouldn't wander too far OT, but I've never understood why people believe that computer science departments should teach m/f particulars (or for that matter, MS-Windows particulars).
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