"In my day," we tended to have very few applicants that actually had schooling for computers. Over the years, I have worked [with|for|over] physicists, marketers, designers, astrophysicists, writers, teachers, high school dropouts, technicians, biologists, artists, salesmen, carpenters, medical doctors, lawyers, etc. Very few CS people.
And it's been a wonderful experience. Made for challenging interviews, though.
With CS and SWE curricula, it is now possible to have a "rote" set of skills and education, and we can assume/test for that.
I do feel that some of the "magic" has gone from the field, but there's no arguing with the torrents of money, sloshing around.
That’s how it feels to me too. When I started out most of the people I worked with had real interest in writing software. Nowadays you have a lot of people who got into it mainly because it’s a well paying job. Definitely much less fun.
Companies feel from the inside like communist states. A ton of propaganda, total disconnect from reality , more effort being put into checking on people vs enabling them to be productive, conformism valued highly, everything flows down from the top, nothing flows up.
And it's been a wonderful experience. Made for challenging interviews, though.
With CS and SWE curricula, it is now possible to have a "rote" set of skills and education, and we can assume/test for that.
I do feel that some of the "magic" has gone from the field, but there's no arguing with the torrents of money, sloshing around.