Not sure how I am supposed to look at this...
So we're almost done with the coding on my senior project, which is to write a survey and reporting system in C#. There is this one person on our team who has done very little coding, and has taken like 2 weeks on this simple function that'd take anyone else maybe an hour or two to do. It was basically all laid out what was left.
I'd talked to them earlier in the week about getting it done and to ask if they have any problems. They said that they were getting some syntax errors and couldn't figure them out. Tonight, when I got home from dinner, they'd email me saying they were getting them again.
Now as you look at this, keep in mind this is a graduating senior in Computer Science who wrote this. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to laugh at this or cry at it.
Here is the function they were using:
public QuestionCollection GetStudentQuestions(int campusID, Definitions.Types.StudentSurveyType type) { ... }
Now, this is how they called it:
QuestionCollection questions = occBL.GetStudentQuestions(int campusID, Definitions.Types.StudentSurveyType type);
Now, can anyone see the glaring problem? They straight copied the declaration line! No putting in their own variables or anything! A senior graduating this semester wrote this! I mean, anyone who took a basic programming class in C/C++ or Java should be able to know how to call a function. It is a pretty core requirement. How did this person get through their programming classes?
While I know that not everyone with a computer science degree is a programming, there are like 5-6 classes that are core requirements to graduate that require programming. You should atleast pick up that much.
This is my gripe with the educational system... too many teachers in classes give these cookie cutter programming assignments where they basically spell out exactly what you need to do. Very little creativity, very little actual programming effort is needed. Even for someone who is not going to be a programmer, the programming classes are an insight into how and why a computer works the way it does, as well as basic problem solving. If you can't even get that down, what good are you going to be?
Now I could laugh at this, since it is funny. But it is also pathetic. Here I am, still working on my degree, trying to actually learn and challenge myself, while this person is waltzing out, degree in hand, not knowing squat. They can put on their resume that they know these languages and worked on these projects, since technically they did, and someone looking to hire them will see the resume and assume they do know these languages and that they can program.
If people like this are getting degrees and going out into the field, this industry is heading for hard times.