An IT graduate now requires a breadth of skills

Re:An IT graduate now requires a breadth of skills by gaius on Tuesday July 08, 2008 @07:11AM (#239756)

IT graduates always required a breadth of skills.

The mystery is why they now need to be told this, rather than showing up with them already.

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Re:An IT graduate now requires a breadth of skills by biohacker42 on Tuesday July 08, 2008 @10:51AM (#239896)

Because there are very few software engineering degree programs. And between the computer science degrees and visual basic factories there's a wide gulf of nothingness where people who want to be good software engineers should be getting their training.

In other words, I'm very happy with my CS degree, but I learned almost all of my software engineering skills outside of the classroom.

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Re:An IT graduate now requires a breadth of skills by edw519 on Tuesday July 08, 2008 @11:01AM (#239905)

I learned almost all of my software engineering skills outside of the classroom

Me too.

I have to believe that this is the norm, not the exception. No matter how much you learn in school, you're never completely ready. You'll probably pick up much, if not most, of what you really need to know on the job.

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Re:An IT graduate now requires a breadth of skills by martythemaniak on Tuesday July 08, 2008 @11:42AM (#239952)

Now asks yourselves this - how many of the skills you picked up during your work experience could have been as effectively learned in a classroom setting?

I worked for 16 months in between 3rd and 4th years where part of my job was doing requirements gathering. When I went back to school I had a course that included a section on requirements gathering and I know for a fact it would have made very little sense had I not done it for real beforehand.

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Re:An IT graduate now requires a breadth of skills by babul on Tuesday July 08, 2008 @01:03PM (#240049)

Things usually make more sense when you implement your learning. Abstract knowledge is often easily forgotten or poorly grasped, learnt knowledge less so.

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Re:An IT graduate now requires a breadth of skills by maw on Tuesday July 08, 2008 @11:52AM (#239963)

The myth that a very narrow set of skills is all that's necessary is not a new one.

I don't really know where it comes from, and my pet hypotheses are too ugly to share, except that their nicest parts have to do with people believing what they want to hear, not what is true.

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