alt Hacker NewsApplying for a position is a much lower bar than having any chance of landing the position.
I’ve interviewed someone for a programming position. The guy practically nailed the standard quiz (done at leisure before the interview), but was unable to explain why he answered what he answered. When we got to reviewing a little program (compare two strings, see if the distribution of letters is the same), he could not walk me through it. He was applying for a programming position, and could not explain his "own" impressively correct programming answers.
Well at least postdocs have a PhD, that they had to defend in front of a chalk board I presume. Still, sometimes, frauds do slip through.
>Well at least postdocs have a PhD
That's the point. This is the bar.
>Still, sometimes, frauds do slip through.
You're projecting your experience in IT on academia, and I can't emphasize strongly enough how far off you are. Which was why this piece was written: that reality is already here in software engineering. The entire point is: if this seems absurd in the context of the piece, why would you accept this anywhere else?
In any case, this satire wasn't written from the point of view of a fraud. And if it doesn't seem outright absurd to you, you need to get a reality check.