Ignoring the fact that CompSci != Programming,
Again, if you were hiring around here in the 90's chances are your university applicants would all have CompSci degrees. So in addition to the many programming courses that were mandatory for said degree, they'd also have a giant heap of math.
that there are a plethora of languages beyond C (I didn't write any C for 8 years after graduating), and that it's the concepts that matter more than any particular language.
But that plethora isn't going to help you when you're looking for a C,C++ Obj-C developer. C was an example, I could have said anything else - other than Turing, which was UofT's big thing. If you're looking for a hire to hit the ground running you need someone with real-world experience, and if that person is fresh out of school, that has to come from their own efforts usually. Perhaps from part-time jobs or freelance, but extra code nonetheless.
The industry that I went to work in (at the time I finished school) was predominantly running on IRIX (which then migrated to Linux). What good would Mac/Windows API experience have done me, or my future employers?
Well it's a good thing you weren't looking for a job designing/writing Mac or Windows applications. Again, it was an example.
My experience with (knowing, working with, designing for, talking with) hundreds of software engineers over the years has shown me different.
I'm starting to get the sense that you hold this opinion because you have a limited notion of what constitutes "real-world experience".
No, I just know what I've required on projects I've lead and developed and I know what I require on some stuff I'm working on now. Again, I believe my points are quite relevant to the type of person being looked for as the subject of this thread.
If you have a particular requirement
Bingo. Again, these are situations outside the expansive walls of a large corporation where you can ramp someone up over weeks and months and start them with an entry-level salary padded out with benefits. But even in such a situation, I picked out the super-stars from the average folk quite easily. ATI had a handful of super-stars, a ton of middle-of the road and unfortunately quite a bit of dead weight as well.
But I sure wouldn't hesitate to interview someone who's resume included developing a proprietary Android app that was used on private company phones that were only given to, for example, repairmen sent to the field.
I would probably interview someone like that since they do have experience. However, they may not stack up as high as someone else with a little less on the job experience and simply more self-sprung Android hacking. You do want to get someone that has project-sense however, not simply someone who can write loose bits of code. They have to be able to grasp the bigger picture, see how things fit together and be able to work with the schedules and parameters you give them.
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