Xref: utzoo misc.jobs.contract:371 comp.edu:3405 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!intercon!news From: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker) Newsgroups: misc.jobs.contract,comp.edu Subject: Re: Qualified? or Dreaming? Message-ID: <26AC9D2A.5B3C@intercon.com> Date: 24 Jul 90 19:10:33 GMT References: <1990Jul8.063302.4076@xavax.com> <2616@igloo.scum.com> <1990Jul11.233006.17884@nmt.edu> <1990Jul23.060010.20406@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us> Sender: usenet@intercon.com (USENET The Magnificent) Reply-To: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker) Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation, Herndon, VA Lines: 32 In article , bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein) writes: > The issues of compilers and operating systems are directly relateable > to many other problems. Indeed. I'd say that the most useful skills I brought to the commercial world were ones that many people classify as "theoretical," including: - Automata theory - Code optimization techniques (since most commercial compilers couldn't optimize their way out of a paper bag) - Algorithms and analysis of their behavior over the time domain - Concurrency issues - Denotational and axiomatic semantics and, most importantly, - A tendency to read CS theory books and journals for fun This kind of broad background can be extremely useful, even in "boring" applications. I once worked with someone who didn't know that different sorting algorithms had different performance characteristics--he ended up using an insertion sort on a several-megabyte database, and it ended up taking 11 hours per run :-). He had an excellent handle on the mechanics of coding, but he didn't have the conceptual background to apply it as effectively as he could. That particular experience seemed to make an impression, though :-), and I have a feeling he pays more attention to "theoretical" issues these days... -- Amanda Walker InterCon Systems Corporation