Joel Spolsky (of JoelOnSoftware fame) has posted a bit of a rant about the quality of programmers coming out of Universities in the US lately, and blaming the problem on the lack of mental challenge current courses present.

Having spent the last 6 months scouring the local job market (Sydney, Australia) for talented people and coming up dry I don't thinks it's a U.S. only issue.

The completely shoddy quality of some of the candidates I've seen recently is woeful. In fact I think I'll start blogging about some of these encounters soon.

In the meantime have a read of the article - it's quite well written and well thought out.