We may be rare but we do exist...
while I would have to agree the majority of my fellow graduates of the class of 2010 could not write a simple program to count from 1 to 10 in even the easiest, albeit bloated, languages like Java, I was quite honestly insulted at the way this article was written which made it out that not one student graduating in the last couple of years had an ounce of programming skill or geekiness in their bodies.
I realise I am speaking for myself here but I believe I have an abundance of both. I graduated this year from a top 10 university and while we were forced down the route of java and spoon fed the syllabus that didn't stop me programming for fun and teaching myself around the subject. You seem to be taking the view that the majority rules and there are no diamonds in the rough as it were. I have found no trouble in finding work and infact had a few offers ranging from funded phd's to well above average paid jobs in a weak economic climate. I decided to take the job as I wanted to get out of the stale learning environment in the UK Universities. I have since picked up python in the 3 months I have been there so much so that I am working on the front end of a highly secure online transaction gateway. I have had no problem and enjoyed the transition from university to the workplace.
I do believe I am in the minority in this and realise that a lot of people leave university with no understanding of the algorithms and techniques that make a good programmer, but the assumption that because you see 100 bad graduates that there is no good graduates is incredibly short sighted.
As for lack of motivation or creativity to do our own projects as graduates again you are assuming that there are none out there willing to do so. I disagree, a fellow graduate and I have been working on our own project alongside our jobs (yes another graduate who walked into a job who is more than competent at knocking a few lines of code out) that we believe to be of great worth. There is no question that we are in the minority as I have not heard of any of my other coursemates following suit but there is not an abundance of this in any society. There is not a Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg or Lawrence Page in every graduate year, but that doesn't mean there aren't people trying. One of the biggest hurdles for the UK graduate that is going for these heights of glory in the industry is that there are very few opportunities given to us to really push forward. The access to funding is just not the same as it is in the US and quite simply to be that successful in this industry it takes luck. Bill Gates was ruthless in business, but was lucky that he had access to a computer at all, Mark Zuckerberg saw a very small but ever growing niche in a highly populated social networking industry, and the guys at google well they just had a good idea for searching through some pages didnt they. But there was a lot of luck that made them as successful as they are today.
All I am trying to say in my long winded way is that assuming that there aren't any geeks that program for the fun of it and are doing quite well out in the real world after graduating in recent years is short sighted and at least in this, self stated, case correct!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
