I could not agree more, and although this applies to a broad range of industries it is extremely pervasive in software development (Related, I have heard a few computer science folks highlight that computer science as a major is not targeted at creating software developers - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1884255). True enough.
I stand by my sentiment on that post, that open source projects are a great 'apprenticeship' opportunity for those interested in computer science-like fields (software/web development and the like). That said, I have participated and watched at http://opensource.com and http://teachingopensource.com and come to realize just how difficult it is to get opensource into the educational system.
Knowing that difficulty, I might categorize experiences in the following best to worst order for new hires:
1. Active open source contributor
2. Active open source contributor w/ non-CS degree
3. Active open source contributor w/ CS degree
Two additional notes:
1. These are not meant to be absolutes, there are certainly individuals who fall into the above-mentioned category 3 that far surpass a category 1 candidate in a particular skill. I am merely suggesting that at a high level, the likely skill-set available to a category 1 candidate is often more desirable than the likely skill-set of a category 2 or 3 candidate. A lot more could be said here, but it is not the point of this post.
2. While this most obviously applies to software development, it also has a natural home among technical document authors, marketing, customer relations, QA, and many other aspects of business that exist and flourish in open source communities.
I stand by my sentiment on that post, that open source projects are a great 'apprenticeship' opportunity for those interested in computer science-like fields (software/web development and the like). That said, I have participated and watched at http://opensource.com and http://teachingopensource.com and come to realize just how difficult it is to get opensource into the educational system.
Knowing that difficulty, I might categorize experiences in the following best to worst order for new hires:
1. Active open source contributor 2. Active open source contributor w/ non-CS degree 3. Active open source contributor w/ CS degree
Two additional notes:
1. These are not meant to be absolutes, there are certainly individuals who fall into the above-mentioned category 3 that far surpass a category 1 candidate in a particular skill. I am merely suggesting that at a high level, the likely skill-set available to a category 1 candidate is often more desirable than the likely skill-set of a category 2 or 3 candidate. A lot more could be said here, but it is not the point of this post. 2. While this most obviously applies to software development, it also has a natural home among technical document authors, marketing, customer relations, QA, and many other aspects of business that exist and flourish in open source communities.