Collect Pokemon, Not Programming Languages
What is it with kids and the quest to learn every programming language?
In my on-going quest to elevate more women into software engineering, I have come across an interesting trend. At many stages of their careers, including as early as intro to CS courses in high school and through college graduates, I get asked: how many programming languages do you speak?
One, I always reply. In every instance, the response is surprise. Just one? One high school junior repeated. There's a guy in my class who knows, like, six languages.
I bit my tongue here. Maybe this kid is a prodigy. But more likely, he's able to write a loop or a function in each of his six languages, and considers that enough to claim competency.
This examples illustrates the phenomenon of collecting programming languages that I relate to my favorite childhood endeavor - gotta catch 'em all.
An interest in coding, especially a young age, is awesome. A willingness to explore various languages and their use cases is great. However, when this trend continues well into college and beyond, it creates an impression that a shallow, basic understanding of a programming language is all that is necessary to be successful as a software engineer. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case.
Let's examine another situation. Recently, I attended a networking event for women coders. These kinds of events are frequently populated by recent graduates and those looking to career switch or move industries, and this night was no different. But for the first time, I noticed the sheer preponderance of boot camp graduates who were struggling to find jobs. They all had that same question - who will hire me?
The most common programming language among the group was JavaScript, so I recruited the assistant of a co-worker who's responsible for the hiring of web developers and asked him to describe the most common programming shortfalls he sees when interviewing boot camp graduates. Basic JavaScript, was his answer. Given that most boot camps teach via a framework, such as React, and within the limited time frame, things like the underlying basics of JavaScript are missed. In the context of a programming interview for a standard web developer role, those gaps in understanding become apparent. Frameworks are powerful tools, but that's what they are - tools to use on top of a concrete understanding of the underlying programming language.
A few weeks ago, a young woman I met through BUILTBYGIRL's Wave mentorship program sent me a text with a question: should she take a boot camp in JavaScript (a totally new language for her) or accept a data science internship at a startup? I screamed 'EXPERIENCE!!!' at my phone, and sent her a calm, reasoned explanation for why I would advocate for the internship.
She started as an intern this week. No more collecting, for now.