An interesting discussion is underway on the current state of IT hiring and how it relates to HR practices, CS education, etcetera.

Jump into the fray and comment, or just read to see what my working world is like.

For myself, I'm a computer-science autodidact. I'm a poster boy for the fact that the ability to solve problems is more important to programming (and most other technology tasks) than knowledge of the specific language / hardware / software used.

Any good problem solver can learn a new language in no time, because "how do I learn this language quickly?" is, after all, also a problem to be solved.

All of this makes the "keyword-based" stringent-requirement HR approach to hiring for IT positions look absolutely laughable.

This reminds me of the job interview I had for a position as Network Administrator for a defense contractor several years ago. One of the techs had reset the clocks on their Netware and HP/UX servers in advance of my arrival. Prior to the interview itself, I was set down in front of the servers with their respective manual sets in plain view and asked to reset all of them to the correct time. I'd never used HP/UX before -- my Unix experience was confined to a passing familiarity with Unixware -- but I reset all of the servers in less than 5 minutes by consulting the HP/UX manuals.

After completing this seemingly inanely simple task, the tech who had reset the servers took me down the hall to meet the supervisor who would conduct my hiring interview. On the way, he told me how many people had been unable to complete the task, completed it incorrectly, or taken as much as half an hour before even trying the manuals. I was the first of several applicants to actually pass the "pre-interview" for this particular position.

And all of this was before the dot-com bubble.

It's a weird aspect of American culture, this unwarranted emphasis on book-knowledge and buzzwords over the simple ability to learn and acquire new skills. But it seems to pervade everywhere, from primary and secondary education to collegiate curricula, technology certifications such as MCSE, and corporate perceptions of ability and hirability.

Wake up, America! It's the "can do" problem-solving people who CAN do whatever you ask them to do.

If they can't, they'll learn how before you can blink.

Naturally, you only want to read my opinions on things, right? No? Well, then...

Links to outside sites referenced in stories on the front page will now have a [b] link following them. This enables you to query Blogdex see other blogs that are discussing the same link.

So, for example, if you'd like another opinion on NeCoRo, you could find additional commentary from other blogs by clicking on the [b] symbol right there next to the link.

This feature comes to you courtesy of the Meta Linker code, at ThinkBlank. It's an elegant little piece of JavaScript. I highly recommend it.

Note that this only works on the front page. If you're reading the archives, or a specific topic area, it won't work. That's not a limitation of the code, it's just the way I set it up to avoid too much JavaScript running all over the place.

Then again, this entire site is essentially powered by JavaScript, so maybe I'll rethink that at some point. But for now, only on the front page.

Right! Time for more new goodies!

First, you'll notice the much more professional title bar up top. (Also, no Studio Ghibli copyright infringement, so that's good, although they probably would never have noticed.)

Second, and much more fun, there's now a list of recent referrals to the site in the left sidebar, below the photo portfolio.

For now, the list will probably be a pretty boring rehash of people I already link to in the "Like Falling Off A Blog" section, but if/when the site ever pops back up on search engines, it'll let you know what kind of weird search terms people are using to get here. Pretty nifty.

So...any time, Google....