Books versus Practical Knowledge

We have often heard people grumbling and complaining about the fact that it is so difficult to get a job these days. It is a common thing and almost all of you would agree with me on this. But we have been faced with an entirely different situation where we are trying to hire a developer and to our surprise we are unable to get a person who has good understanding of the subject. All the feedback from the interviews is that although the person has worked on a specific technology but he/she is not aware about what happens internally. People only posses bookish knowledge and lack the basics.

I have been shocked by the low percentage of people who actually know what they are doing and what the technology is doing for them. The basic frameworks, technology is like a black box to most developers these days and they only know how to use it rather than trying to figure out what is happening inside. The culture is shifting to a more bookish approach to things. People are very good at things when it comes to understanding but they lack practicality.

We, in our office have opening for Java professionals and we are surprised at the candidates that are coming for interview. In the process of making their resumes look beautiful they have added so many technologies that they call themselves Jack of All but are Masters of None. I guess this is due to the cut throat competition that forces you to load your resume with all the latest technology to impress the Employer and force them to call you for an interview. But this is hampering the candidates as they are more focused on getting calls rather than actually breaking through. The concept has changed but I believe we need to rethink.