We hired a Dean's list EE to be a systems designer. After he had been with us
a few weeks, one of the techs asked me, "How can he be an electrical engineer
and not know anything about electricity?"

--
Dan

That's pretty sad... I'm an EE and I pride myself in my soldering
skills. I do most of my prototype builds myself by hand with 0603,
SOT-23, and even SO-8 and SO-16 parts. I have even removed and
replaced 144 pin Quad Flat Pack components successfully.

I have seen my share of "book smart" EE's though, so I know what you
mean. Unfortunately HR usually uses a standard list of criteria to
filter candidates, and they don't have a clue about some of the more
practical skills of the profession. Not until the other engineers get
to interview does that kind of stuff come out, and it only comes out
if the EE's doing the interviewing have a good set of interview
questions/excercises. Often good candidates get screened out long
before they ever get a chance to talk to the interview team... that is
unless they tailor their resume to get through the HR filter.

I get turned off by a lot of job req's that list a very specific set
of skills and experience, especially since often similar experience
and a good head on your shoulders will work just as well as someone
who has been doing the exact work they are looking for.

Dean