(snip)
I can relate to your sentiments.
By far the thing that annoys me the most is that it is blatantly obvious that they have absolutely no interest in learning anything - even just enough to get them through the degree before they take a job selling Cisco routers. It even extends as far as not being willing to even understand what it is that they're _not_ learning!
I came across a few like this when I was doing my uni degree. They freely admitted that they weren't the slightest bit interested in learning anything taught in the course, and had no shame asking for copies of tutorial works and assignments - spending the first half of the lecture copying them out by hand, and then promptly leaving!
And yes, one of them did go on to sell Cisco routers. What a waste of an engineering degree - even sadder when you think of who may have missed out on a place because of them...
As for those 'engineers' that claim they have been given a task by their boss, yet are clearly incapable of grasping the fundamental concepts behind the problem and ask for "urgent help plz" (help often equating to source code) - they're either complete liars or work for a company that I would hope I never buy a product from.
Regards,