> It's no surprise that employers like ITA and Google, who work with > massive, complex data sets, are interested in people with CS theory. > And with hard drive and memory capacity going up, data sets are > only > getting bigger.
There are lots and lots of businesses out there. Some need people who understand algorithms very well, others can get by with somebody who can generate a web page in a scripting language and create/implement algorithms of bubble-sort level difficulty. I have been programming professionally for over 10 years now. Perhaps it has been my choice of what to work with, but I have found myself using a craftsman-style skill set probably at least 90% of the time, and occasionally getting to solve a creative problem that required a more in-depth understanding of algorithms. Craftsman-level skill should not be looked down upon at all. As I mentioned in my book, the power of MySQL is not so much in its underlying algorithms, if anything that would be the area of its weakness, but in the craftsmanship with would those algorithms are implemented. Additionally, the value of software is only very partially is in the algorithms (CS expertise). Does it have the needed feature set? Is the user interface properly designed for the intended audience? How stable is it? How responsive is it? (You could have a brilliant algorithm underneath, but without some practical considerations the application will not be responsive) We need all kinds of skill sets, and we should not feel like we are better than others because we possess a certain unique skill set. Some food for thought - every surgeon needs a plumber, but not every plumber needs a surgeon. -- Sasha Pachev AskSasha Linux Consulting http://asksasha.com /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
