Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

-2000 Lines of Code (2004)

folklore.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 134 posts

Re: -2000 Lines of Code (2004)

#21

Post by duncan_bayne »

bargl wrote: post #3

I had a job interview once where the HR rep asked me how many lines of code I wrote a week. I responded, "On a really good week -1000, I don't remember the exact figure." She was extremely confused by this answer and wanted me to give her a number. So she said, "I'll just put down 10,000." This is also the interview where they refused to continue unless I told them how much money I made (which I don't do anymore). Th…

> I was offered the job but decided not to take it because that plus the technical interview made me wary.

Sounds like you made a great choice :)

Re: -2000 Lines of Code (2004)

#23

Post by mgkimsal »

wdewind wrote: post #18
mgkimsal wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The justification they told me was that they weren't going to give me a 20K raise if I wasn't making that much right now Even after 20+ years in the labor force, I've never understood that justification. "I'm a nosy bastard" at least has a ring of truth to it.

Don't be so literal about it. I used to get defensive about that question too, but the truth is they aren't asking you how much you are making, they are asking you to start the salary negotiation so they can get a feel for what it's going to take to hire you and describe you adequately to a hiring manager. It's just an opportunity for you both to ballpark the situation and eject early if there's going to be a wide di…

No... there are recruiters who are a lot more invasive and pushy (and a couple employers I've run across).

"Proof of previous income" was required at one place I applied years back, and I've heard similar stories from colleagues. No, of course, I don't bother going forward in those situations.

"What are you making now?" is crass. The good recruiters I've worked with phrased it as "what are your salary expectations?" or "the range is $x-$y - are you OK with that?"

I've taken it literally in situations where they actually meant it literally. "We will not pay you $80k until you can prove you were making $80k at your previous job". Insane, but it does happen on occasion. How those companies ever manage to hire anyone... I'm not sure.

Re: -2000 Lines of Code (2004)

#24

Post by avmich »

wdewind wrote: post #18
mgkimsal wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The justification they told me was that they weren't going to give me a 20K raise if I wasn't making that much right now Even after 20+ years in the labor force, I've never understood that justification. "I'm a nosy bastard" at least has a ring of truth to it.

Don't be so literal about it. I used to get defensive about that question too, but the truth is they aren't asking you how much you are making, they are asking you to start the salary negotiation so they can get a feel for what it's going to take to hire you and describe you adequately to a hiring manager. It's just an opportunity for you both to ballpark the situation and eject early if there's going to be a wide di…

In addition to other reasons, it can also be beneficial for any side to postpone this discussion for a later phase.

Re: -2000 Lines of Code (2004)

#25

Post by avmich »

cpeterso wrote: post #4
bargl wrote: post #3

I had a job interview once where the HR rep asked me how many lines of code I wrote a week. I responded, "On a really good week -1000, I don't remember the exact figure." She was extremely confused by this answer and wanted me to give her a number. So she said, "I'll just put down 10,000." This is also the interview where they refused to continue unless I told them how much money I made (which I don't do anymore). Th…

520,000 lines of code per year! :)

A good case to use code generators, I guess...

Re: -2000 Lines of Code (2004)

#26

Post by monochromatic »

wdewind wrote: post #18
mgkimsal wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The justification they told me was that they weren't going to give me a 20K raise if I wasn't making that much right now Even after 20+ years in the labor force, I've never understood that justification. "I'm a nosy bastard" at least has a ring of truth to it.

Don't be so literal about it. I used to get defensive about that question too, but the truth is they aren't asking you how much you are making, they are asking you to start the salary negotiation so they can get a feel for what it's going to take to hire you and describe you adequately to a hiring manager. It's just an opportunity for you both to ballpark the situation and eject early if there's going to be a wide di…

> equally advantageous to both parties

There ain't no such thing. Salary negotiations are pretty close to zero-sum.

Re: -2000 Lines of Code (2004)

#28

Post by jason_slack »

I worked at a furniture company where in order to delete code you had to have the head IT guy, the IT Director and an outside consultant sign off on it. Yes, that is right! 2 people that didn't know how to code and an outside consultant that we paid to look over "IT" moves before we made them.

However, I didn't need anyone to sign off on commenting out code and replacing it with something else. :-)

Re: -2000 Lines of Code (2004)

#29

Post by dhd415 »

I finished up a 24-month project earlier this year on a codebase of ~1M lines in which I dropped a net of almost 100k lines of code and reduced the main Visual Studio solution from 325 projects down to 105 projects. Compile times dropped from ~40 minutes to 6 minutes. If only all my projects could be that fun.
Post reply on HN