Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Why don’t we have more engineers and computer scientists? Maybe, for better or worse, we don’t have enough “tough” people.

I have recently read of a shortage of engineers and computer scientists. I have my doubts about this shortage, but enough people are declaring it that there may be some truth to it.

One question I see asked is, “Why don’t people take online programming courses and fill these open jobs?”

The answer is, “They don’t want programmers, they want people with degrees in engineering or computer science.”

Aha! So that’s it – credentialism (or something like that).

Engineers and computer scientists take two years of calculus, one year of chemistry, and one year of physics in college. Those are difficult courses. Passing those courses requires an amount of toughness or fortitude. Taking online programming courses, while not trivial, does not require the same toughness or fortitude.

Note, I wrote “for better or worse” in the summary at the top of this post. Being “tough” may not be a good thing. It could simply be arrogance, and we could tolerate a shortage of arrogance.

Nevertheless, companies look for people with degrees in engineering and computer science. They look for people who have worked their way through difficult courses. We have yet to find another way to equate something to that difficulty.

We are open to suggestions.