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Who Y Combinator Companies Want

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Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#181

Post by nvader »

ScottBurson wrote: post #87
throwaway456789 wrote: post #63

I'm an "enterprise" programmer because I write in Java... I'm also older than the average age of a start-up employee (late twenties). I've never written a line of Ruby, and I've never written object oriented JavaScript or used Node.js. However, I'm a really good programmer. I just happen to write the majority of my code in Java. If tomorrow we decided to use a new language, I could pick it up in a few days... I have…

The first time I read your post I missed the parenthetical in the first paragraph, and was inclined to agree with you. Then I looked again and saw "(late twenties)", and had to laugh. On the one hand, you're right, you can't learn everything. On the other, to be able to realistically claim that you can pick up new languages quickly, you should already know three or four different kinds of languages. If all you know i…

The parent could be stating that late twenties is the average age of startup founders, not that that they are in their late twenties themselves.

I do agree with you that someone who claims to pick up new languages in a week should already have picked up a few languages. The grandparent says they only do the _majority_ of their programming in Java, so perhaps they have that covered. I'd love to know what the other languages they've chosen are, and their dissimilarity to Java.

I don't know how to evaluate their claim that they're a really_good programmer, given that it's a throwaway account. But then, given the data of this article, I guess no one does.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#182

Post by jonnathanson »

kelnos wrote: post #110
scarmig wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience in the Bay Area, jobs fall into one of three categories: 1) No paid vacation at all 2) 15-25 days of vacation a year 3) "Unlimited vacation," which is usually a hip facade for 1 or 2.

2) 15-25 days of vacation a year Really? 25 days is 5 weeks; I feel like the standard for PTO is 10-15 days, and often it's 10 days, but you get bumped up to 15 after you work at a place for a year or two. 3) "Unlimited vacation," which is usually a hip facade for 1 or 2. Is that really true? I have very limited first-hand experience; only two of my employers have offered unlimited vacation. For one of them, it was a…

With any vacation allocation, there are really two numbers to think about: 1) the technical number of PTO days you have been given; 2) the number of PTO days you actually feel at liberty to take. Often, though not always, #2 As a response, many companies are switching to "unlimited" plans. These look good to the uninitiated. But the real impetus for an "unlimited" plan is that it frees the company from having to guarantee -- or pay out for -- a minimum number of days for each employee. It's not really about lifting the ceiling; it's about lowering the floor.

I'm sure there are companies out there who really do have, and make every effort to honor, "unlimited" vacation plans. But I believe these companies are the exception to the rule.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#183

Post by perlgeek »

throwaway456789 wrote: post #63

I'm an "enterprise" programmer because I write in Java... I'm also older than the average age of a start-up employee (late twenties). I've never written a line of Ruby, and I've never written object oriented JavaScript or used Node.js. However, I'm a really good programmer. I just happen to write the majority of my code in Java. If tomorrow we decided to use a new language, I could pick it up in a few days... I have…

age-ism for somebody in the late twenties? That sounds, ... dunno, exaggerated or even ridiculous.

I'd expected age-ism to start at the 50s or maybe 40s, but then I'm not in Silicon Valley either :-)

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#184

Post by taurath »

Fiahil wrote: post #109

> Almost no one passes all their programming interviews. This is true because of randomness in many interview processes (even great people are bad at some things, and an interviewer focusing on this can yield a blocking no). Reading this is somewhat reassuring. I've been over some interviews lately and I had some trouble getting past the tech phone screen. One particular rejection was very frustrating, because I've s…

Not completely random, but by my estimation being self-taught fully 40-60% of engineering organizations (trending higher as they get bigger) care much more deeply about academic CS than they do about whether you're able to ship a product. Those companies are looking for people who fit a mold (a generalized interface) so they can scale their teams out. Startups and smaller companies tend to value people who are flexible and can learn new things very quickly and are less likely to test you on alg analysis and are much more likely to throw you an unfamiliar problem and see how you solve it.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#185

Post by CardenB »

Fiahil wrote: post #109

> Almost no one passes all their programming interviews. This is true because of randomness in many interview processes (even great people are bad at some things, and an interviewer focusing on this can yield a blocking no). Reading this is somewhat reassuring. I've been over some interviews lately and I had some trouble getting past the tech phone screen. One particular rejection was very frustrating, because I've s…

It's not "completely random". It's a process biased toward false negatives with some variance.

I've managed to land some really stellar opportunities, and I've bombed several opportunities that are better, worse, and on par with my experience. Please get lucky and unlucky. The truth is, it's hard to tell which category you belong to.

It's best to just try your best and try not to get discouraged. Someone will notice if you're talented, eventually.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#186

Post by LordHumungous »

chatmasta wrote: post #28
ryandrake wrote: post #8

> "We’ve seen that most engineers only have the stomach for a limited number of interviews. Investing time in the wrong companies carries a high opportunity cost." I suspect in addition to not having the "stomach" for an unlimited number of interviews, they don't have the vacation days to burn for them. Let's say you are working already and have 10 days a year vacation (pretty standard). With these ridiculous all-day…

It's not only the applicants who have limited time. The startup founders are also time constrained. You can't found a successful startup if you spend 10+ hours a week interviewing potential employees. I suspect much of the initial bias and "hard line" preferences are due to a startup's unwillingness to spend inordinate amounts of time interviewing candidates to find that one diamond in the rough. Imagine 4 of every 1…

That would be true if you could show that candidate "types" are actually meaningful distinctions and not just the founder's first impression based on limited data. I think that's a stretch.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#187

Post by vonmoltke »

ryandrake wrote: post #161
vonmoltke wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem you're working on can be fake I'm assuming if it was a fake problem, it wouldn't be something the other company could actually use.

It's not about what they could use. It's about what they own and where it's going. If your employment agreement states that any code you write belongs to your employer and that you're not allowed to share company code with others, then a work-sample test essentially asks candidates to violate their current employment agreement.

Taking that interpretation would mean any interview where you write code would violate your employment agreement.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#188

Post by citizens »

dmoy wrote: post #126
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The filters that companies and recruiters use mostly trend in a meaningful direction. There are a higher percentage of good programmers among MIT grads than SUNY Potsdam grads. Imagine how mistaken that would sound if you substitute "startup founders" for "programmers." The reason you feel company filters are anything except random noise is personal bias. It's disheartening that your article notices that company pref…

How do you do a work-hire test for someone who already has a job, and is not allowed to work on another company's stuff?

If all of an applicant's code is owned by their current employer would "whiteboard" style code also be prohibited in an interview? I guess I'm wondering where the line is drawn.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#189

Post by moron4hire »

This is why I don't really interview my sub-contractors. If I run into someone at a meetup that I think seems smart, I ask them if they'd be interested in picking up a small project. If they accept, I... give them a small project. No resumes. No demeaning interrogation. Straight to work on something real. And I pay them.[0]

If they do well, I give them another one. If they don't, I tell them I'm sorry but I don't have any more work for them.

Thinking more deeply on the issue, I think I want to know as little about a potential candidate as possible.[1] I don't want to bias myself against them. I've had a lot of bad experiences in my career and I'm sure I'm not perfect at keeping my prejudices to myself. I want to get people into the chair as soon as possible, get them working, and judge from the work. Once I see work getting done, it's really easy to ignore everything else.

[0] I don't think I can even make someone do an "interview assignment" for free. I'd be receiving something of value--their labor--but I'd have no accounting of it for taxes and I have no desire to try to figure out how to keep track of something like that.

[1] Yeah, I'll say this probably includes whether or not they have any experience with programming. If they can't do the job, we'll find out soon enough. If they can do the job to a satisfactory degree, why do I need know how long they've been doing it before? Give people a chance to surprise you.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#190

Post by waterlesscloud »

_delirium wrote: post #158
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The filters that companies and recruiters use mostly trend in a meaningful direction. There are a higher percentage of good programmers among MIT grads than SUNY Potsdam grads. Imagine how mistaken that would sound if you substitute "startup founders" for "programmers." The reason you feel company filters are anything except random noise is personal bias. It's disheartening that your article notices that company pref…

> Imagine how mistaken that would sound if you substitute "startup founders" for "programmers." Isn't that pretty common among incubators and VCs? It's not the only factor, but for first-time founders, being from Stanford is a large plus when it comes to getting in the door. If you already have a track record then of course they just go by that. But when it's your first company, I don't think the "startup ecosystem"…

And the vast, vast majority of startups fail.

So.

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