The problem I am seeing with our CS and SE students is two fold:

1. They don't understand the importance of industry standards and developing testing procedures into their professional work as specified by the intended use of the end user. Every other engineering professional's work is governed by the industry standards - a true software engineering professional must understand this if they want to be treated like and considered as a real "engineer" and not a self-taught coder that ends up being nothing more than a glorified script kiddie.

2. Intolerance for ambiguity - as soon as there is a little bit of chaos or unknowns in the project process they completely fall apart. I tell them that if they wanted to go into a field that is highly predictable and controlled step-by-step then they should consider something other than software engineering. Electrical engineering uses the waterfall model for this reason (as the work is again governed and determined by the industry standards) but software engineers need to be ready to be agile and sprint in a new direction at a moments notice (hence the integration of agile/scrum frameworks for project management as opposed to the other industries approaches rooted in processes and procedures within a rigidly established structure). Very few students seem prepared to deal with the abstract, intuitive, interpersonal, conceptual, theoretical, and complex realities of computer science. They are fine following a step-by-step approach where as long as the instructor holds their hand from start to finish they can do the work okay. But introduce a little bit of ambiguity and oh boy they fall apart almost instantly.

Employers who hire UVU CS/SE grads report that the biggest problem they face is our grads give up or quit as soon as they are asked to do something they don't have some pre-defined or established familiar procedure for. This is especially true for interpersonal interactions within a team setting - ESPECIALLY within global / intercultural interactions.

Have you observed a similar pattern from UVU or just recent CS/SE grads in general?