Comments on: perpetual novice – years of experience vs skill

By: jeanne

jeanne — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:46:34 +0000

Cool quote Xris. It’s a lot to think about!

By: xris

xris — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:50:34 +0000

types[] = {
“He who knows not, and knows not he knows not, is a fool — shun him.”,
“He who knows not, and knows he knows not, is ignorant — teach him.”,
“He who knows, and knows not he knows, is asleep — wake him.”,
“He who knows, and knows he knows, is wise — follow him.”
}

perpetualNovice = types[0];

By: jeanne

jeanne — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:08:56 +0000

I agree with Scott. My comments are directed at people think their experience is value as more than I think it should be.

Forget straight out of college – try student interns! At lunch today, I had a discussion about the difference between a high school and college intern. It’s amazing to me how much those couple years matter.

By: scott

scott — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:05:36 +0000

In reply to Vishwajeet Singh. I disagree to a small extend. The number of years of experience does not necessarily make you a better programmer, but the converse is true: If you're a good programmer then you must have years of experience. It's extremely rare, nearly impossible, for a programmer with no experience to be a good developer. Part of what it takes to be a good developer is learning to work with others, learning to program as a team, and learning the difference between theory and practice. Ask any senior programmer whose had to train someone fresh out of college, 99 times out of a 100 its like babysitting anytime they code.

By: Vishwajeet Singh

Vishwajeet Singh — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:49:44 +0000

In my opinion number of years of experience is no where measure of your actual skills

By: jeanne

jeanne — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:51:42 +0000

filippo: I agree completely. Someone with “real” experience breezes through those and then we can move on to more interesting questions/discussions.

MJK: If you think you are a perpetual novice, you are less likely to be one! One of the trains I see in a perpetual novice is not recognizing the face.

John: Interesting. I like the levels/tiers he uses.

By: John

John — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:42:20 +0000

You should check out Joel Spolsky’s Ladder for determining salary: http://joelonsoftware.com/articles/ladder.html

That was the first time I’d seen the “same exepreince x times over” statement. He also goes over some very good ways of determining experience.

By: MJK

MJK — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:51:32 +0000

I am a perpetual novice (I fear).
It seems like no one comes to me for advice or information, nor consults any kind of expertise I might have. I’ve been at this a couple of years and some days I feel just as clueless as the day I began. I’m not sure what makes me stand out but I bet my co-workers who have to work with me know.

By: filippo

filippo — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 06:41:19 +0000

Yes, I’ve found so many “perpetual novices” that I learnt (the hard way) to ignore resumes, certifications and “years of experience” and ask even the most trivial technical concepts during the interviews.

By: Rajs

Rajs — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:29:38 +0000

IMHO, years of experience has actually very little to do with skill. I have seen all 4 combinations of skill vs experience (high skill/experience, low skill/experience, high/low skill/experience). So, I rarely go by the years of experience – only go by the skills required for that job.