Who Y Combinator Companies Want • Hacker News Board

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#461

Post by silverpikezero » Wed, Dec 09, 2015, 4:36 AM UTC

curun1r wrote: post #311

silverpikezero wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Startups should realize that this is a thoroughly idiotic notion, and should abandon it ASAP. The one thing that large software companies do well is SHIP PRODUCTS. A good software engineer is someone who can ship a product, even if its ill-defined or not feature-complete. This is a virtue. Small companies, especially startups, have a horrible track record for shipping software that in any way resembles its product pl…

Which large companies have you worked for? I've worked in both environments and seen way more failed projects on the enterprise side. However when an enterprise ships something, the shipped product tends to be more stable. There's tradeoffs to be made and large companies often prioritize stability and their reputation over time to market and spending money. As a startup, I would look for people who have less speciali…

The big problem I see with this idea is that scrappy, do-whatever-it-takes people almost never write clean code, checkin cleanly, test properly, and practice good product design. I value these things more than "rugged individualism". Furthermore, if your software team is doing sales, that's a really bad allocation of talent. Even the tinyest of startups should have dedicated roles for the other dimensions of your business (e.g. Sales, Support, HR, CTO). You pit 2 teams against one another with the goal of producing a great product, and one team has a wide spectrum of talent, the other has great software engineering discipline, I would bet on the latter team every time.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#462

Post by MCRed » Wed, Dec 09, 2015, 4:36 AM UTC

erichmond wrote: post #340

NhanH wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not trying to be pretentious here. But all big companies (Google etc.) I've interviewed so far asked me to code, what should I make of your advice?

My guess is that he's referring to startups, not monstrous companies like Google. I think the reason you whiteboard for google interviews because you will necessarily be a cog in a wheel, and the focus of the cog is to code. At smaller companies / startups, you will potentially be expected to design, architect, gather requirements, code, etc.

Sorry, I think google is incompetently run. That they whiteboard, and want prestigious degrees, and all that other BS is just a smell of their incompetence. (Their performance in key technical areas is the proof... but I understand to most readers here they are probably starry eyed about google, while I've competed with them and kicked their ass in the market.)

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#463

Post by marshray » Wed, Dec 09, 2015, 4:36 AM UTC

darkerside wrote: post #171

I couldn't help noticing that "Strong Junior Programmer" stands out from the rest. It as a category suffers from juxtaposition with "Child Prodigy Programmer". The "Strong" prefix sounds like a meaningless qualifier that only serves to blunt the label of "Junior". I have to guess that the reason companies select out of this category is that the candidates are perhaps not qualified.

Either they want the candidate to be physically strong, or more likely, they're really looking for some other qualities which they can't easily summarize.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#464

Post by MCRed » Wed, Dec 09, 2015, 4:39 AM UTC

quanticle wrote: post #458

MCRed wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a "Tech company thing" it's a "junior engineer who doesn't know how to interview" thing. It is an indicator of a low quality company. Seriously. This is my opinion after 25 years of interviews. Ask the candidate "Tell me about a project you're passionate about". Find out why. Get them to explain a hard problem they solved. Get them to teach it to you so you understand it. Find the candidate that can do that…

>It's not a "Tech company thing" it's a "junior engineer who doesn't know how to interview" thing. It is an indicator of a low quality company. I guess Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Dropbox are all low quality companies, then.

I've worked for two of those, beat one in the market, and have a low regard of the quality of engineering at the other two... so yeah, low quality companies. Or at least low quality hiring processes.

One problem that seems pervasive on hacker news is Cargo Cultism. Just because one of those companies does something does not mean that it's a good thing. Some of those companies have really capricious and arbitrary hiring policies.

Don't get starry eyed. Don't confuse a household name for quality. And don't mindlessly copy the broken system of a fortune 500 company for your startup.

I'm an engineer, I'm not just pulling this out of my ass. I've been conducting thousands of interviews over the past decades and had to manage the people I hired with my process.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#465

Post by TheCoelacanth » Wed, Dec 09, 2015, 4:47 AM UTC

lsc wrote: post #444

marme wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IQ tests are not only politically incorrect they are illegal in the US. It is illegal discrimination to make hiring decisions based on IQ scores. You can only use a test that shows those with higher scores perform better at the job. A general IQ test can not be shown to do that. Basically you can not ask questions that test skills that would not be used in the job the candidate is applying for. You must be able to de…

>IQ tests are not only politically incorrect they are illegal in the US. It is illegal discrimination to make hiring decisions based on IQ scores. Oh come now. Every company in the valley emphasizes "cultural fit" and that's about as subtle a dog-whistle as an '88' neck tattoo. It's pretty obvious that nobody here cares about even the most clear-cut discrimination against protected classes (and it's not at all clear…

The difference is that "cultural fit" means a different thing at every different company, so it would have to be proven to be discriminatory on a case-by-case basis. That takes too much work, so it doesn't happen very often.

IQ tests are well known to have a disparate impact on some protected classes, so you are treading on extremely thin ice to use one.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#466

Post by tim333 » Wed, Dec 09, 2015, 4:48 AM UTC

johncolanduoni wrote: post #237

marme wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IQ tests are not only politically incorrect they are illegal in the US. It is illegal discrimination to make hiring decisions based on IQ scores. You can only use a test that shows those with higher scores perform better at the job. A general IQ test can not be shown to do that. Basically you can not ask questions that test skills that would not be used in the job the candidate is applying for. You must be able to de…

> It is illegal discrimination to make hiring decisions based on IQ scores. You can only use a test that shows those with higher scores perform better at the job. There is more scientific evidence that IQ predicts job performance than for most of the more qualitative criterions that employers use in practice. The source of the illegality of using IQ tests is not legislative (intelligence is not a protected class[1]).…

Reading the Wikipedia link on Griggs it seems to have been about requiring a high school diploma for jobs that didn't need that as a way of keeping blacks out. That seems a different matter to wanting to hire intelligent people to programme?

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#467

Post by Snowdax » Wed, Dec 09, 2015, 4:51 AM UTC

hox wrote: post #415

shimon wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you worked at multiple jobs over those 10 years? As a hiring manager (working with only the limited data you've provided here) I'd be concerned that you value stability very highly, and you might be thrown by the rate of change (in requirements, tools used, business goals, desired feature set, etc) that is typical of a startup. Long tenure at a single job suggests you enjoy getting deeply specialized and develop…

Wow. Really? Why is stability a concern? Much of engineering is making solid decisions and fucking sticking with them rather than changing to the latest toolset because that's what hacker news says is the best today. Are you trying to build a product and company, or a blog post?

Stability is a concern because startups are not stable. In 6 months time Apple could open source something that makes your last 5 years of work irrelevant in a night. If you can't ship in 6 months you're company will probably have shut up shop in 12 because someone already ate your lunch.

If it's a choice between stability (via proper testing, architecture, etc.) and staying operating, stability loses every time.

No matter what happens the tech world is a different place in a year. You have to adapt regardless so properly thought out code will get thrown out just as easily as 4am hacks.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#468

Post by knughit » Wed, Dec 09, 2015, 4:53 AM UTC

rifung wrote: post #441

swalsh wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"whiteboard hazing" there are two types of whiteboarding questions. The kind that's a perfectly reasonable thing to ask (i've had people ask me to develop some simple system... which I think is reasonable, because i'll do that as part of the job) but then there's the solve x algorithm questions. Which ultimately is an exercise in memorization. At this point I've just accepted that i'll have to do that.

When you figure out how you can memorize your way through Google's interview process, please give me some advice. I study algorithms constantly out of interest, and still only managed to do well enough that they gave me another try a week later. Do I think algorithm questions predict how well you do on a job? No. However I certainly don't think they are just memorization unless you mean memorizing run time of various…

Careercup.com If you can ace Algorithms 101 exam, you can get hired. It is a measure of intelligence and ability to learn (and for older folks, free time to refresh) but it doesn't have much to do with job performance.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#469

Post by knughit » Wed, Dec 09, 2015, 4:55 AM UTC

engi_nerd wrote: post #349

jcadam wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll use myself as an example -- I work as a programmer in the Defense industry. I've wanted out for years. So every so often I start sending out resumes and going on interviews. After wasting about half of my vacation time on (multiple) rounds of interviews with each prospective employer (that ultimately lead nowhere -- most often, a potential employer who inexplicably stops communicating with me), I give up. Then,…

The defense industry is strange . I've had three jobs in it. In every single interview, the most technical question that anyone ever asked me was, "What do you like to do on the weekends?" And all three jobs have been engineering positions.

It is contracting. They bill cost plus, so performance is irrelevant

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#470

Post by Nadya » Wed, Dec 09, 2015, 4:56 AM UTC

chipsy wrote: post #460

Nadya wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Is `data` a singular or plural entity?" is a question you should ask yourself. In this case their data is a collection or mass of data - and is singular . In the blog, using "the data shows that" is the proper way to write the statement.

This may be a British/American English gaffe. Collective nouns in British English are referred to using plurals, e.g. "Apple are planning a new product," vs. the American "Apple is planning a new product."

Perhaps. I know it as a more modern linguistic split that isn't really related to the British/American divide. Regardless of the reason, many linguists would laugh someone like them out of the building. Living languages are constantly changing and while somewhat steady rules ensure there is less confusion - the majority will always win.

If the majority of people refer to collective nouns as singular than that is the correct way to use them because the "correct way" is only ever defined by the majority.

How is the pronunciation of a word decided? Majority of people saying it one way. How do people agree upon the meaning of a word? Majority of people using it to mean something. How does grammar become more lax? Majority of people speak with fewer restrictions.

i contest the moderne way of speech is to be thovght proper as he has argvede, bvt the olde way of speeking is the trve way!