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

I have no side code projects to show you

codementor.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 545 posts

Re: I have no side code projects to show you

#191

Post by strken »

bad_user wrote: post #75
kelnos wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're espousing a false dichotomy. The options in evaluating a candidate aren't merely "give them whiteboard coding problems" or "examine their side projects". Give them a take-home assignment. Give them an in-person assignment where they have several hours to complete a smallish design-and-build task. There are a lot more options, and I'm getting tired of people claiming they don't know how to evaluate technical ca…

Giving a candidate a "take-home assignment" is actually the most disrespectful of the options listed. Unless you're an awesome company, with really cool projects and offering me a jaw dropping salary and benefits, then no, I'm not going to do free work for you. Even if you are an awesome company, people probably have to actually work for you to see that, so no, I'm not going to do free work for you. I'd rather spend…

Depends who you're hiring. Early career devs with a lot more time than prospects, and who have already spend a good portion of that time working for free on exercises and toy projects in the name of learning, might not have a folio of work to prove their skills. Crusty HN regulars probably prefer to chuck a github profile around, or provide samples of work in some other way. I don't think it's one size fits all.

Re: I have no side code projects to show you

#192

Post by warcher »

eropple wrote: post #42
warcher wrote: post #31

I’m not mad at you, but as the dude on the other side of the desk, I have to decide whether you can cut it and I’m fine saying no. I could make you do some whiteboard problems, but I think whiteboard problems are pretty far removed from your day to day development and I am uncomfortable relying on them as a proxy for your ability to ship code. I don’t really disagree with your philosophy of working while you’re worki…

On the flip side? As somebody who has plenty of open source projects--the set of employers who actually looks at them is within epsilon of zero. I have not once, not once gotten a meaningful question from anything I have posted on Github in any interview or client meeting even after suggesting up-front that it's worth taking a look. And I used to interview on a monthly basis just to keep in practice! No--instead you…

I am technical and we will sit down and go line by line, haha. And I know where alllllllll the fun code is hiding, not just the boilerplate. I get real deep in there. I’m sure my methods probably weed out some folks who don’t or can’t drop trou, but I never expected to catch every single fish in the ocean.

Re: I have no side code projects to show you

#193

Post by hobofan »

eropple wrote: post #105
dualogy wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As somebody who has plenty of open source projects--the set of employers who actually looks at them is within epsilon of zero. I have not once, not once gotten a meaningful question from anything I have posted on Github I guess that isn't the idea here. I think the idea is for them to grab a dev from the next cubicle/floor, point them to the repo, ask "can he code?", and the dev says "sure looks like code to me, ye…

In my experience, that doesn't happen. And I go on a lot of interviews; it's an activity that helps with a set of skills that I always need to keep sharp. And, along those lines, I get a lot of offers! But it has never-not-once been related to my Github profile. In my experience, it is employers signaling how cool they are before they ask you to do their multi-hour coding test for no money.

> before they ask you to do their multi-hour coding test for no money

Where do all of you keep finding those companies? Is that an SV thing, or am I just not applying to "prestigious" enough companies? I've been on my fair share of interviews and haven't had that happen once, along with no whiteboard interviews. I can echo your experience about Github projects playing a small role apart from signaling though. Once, an interviewer mentioned one of the Github projects I worked on and we exchanged 2-3 sentences about it, but I don't think it had a significant impact on the result of the interview.

Re: I have no side code projects to show you

#195

Post by SliderUp »

This really resonated with me. I am passionate, or at least I think so. But all my subprojects are for work. I work at a place where the problems are interesting, and we are encouraged to randomly skunk works things in the background. So I do.

None of those things are things that I can give out or show to anyone at all. I'm really interested in the field my company works in, and all my side projects are related to it, at least elliptically.

The only thing I can show you after 35 years are things like abandon shareware products from the late 80s and some really awful code written for no purpose long ago. Nothing that relates it all to what I've done for the last 20 years.

I also work in one of those companies that asks applicants to do some code problems and turn them in. On the other hand we really don't care how you solve them or even if you solve them. What we want to do is get in a group setting with the applicant and the code and four or five of us and talk through the code. The problems tend to be simple, the interesting part is talking to to a candidate and getting a sense of how they code/think.

Re: I have no side code projects to show you

#196

Post by sumeno »

mb_72 wrote: post #144
sumeno wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: In 10 years I have never had an employer ask to see a code sample so that 15 hours was better spent by doing pretty much anything else.

Nevertheless, 15 hours seems like good insurance for the time spent.

Maybe, but if I had spent 15 hours 10 years ago it is doubtful that it would still be relevant or useful now. If I come to the point where I need some code to show for a job that I really want I'll just spend the 15 hours then.

Re: I have no side code projects to show you

#197

Post by warcher »

dba7dba wrote: post #173
warcher wrote: post #31

I’m not mad at you, but as the dude on the other side of the desk, I have to decide whether you can cut it and I’m fine saying no. I could make you do some whiteboard problems, but I think whiteboard problems are pretty far removed from your day to day development and I am uncomfortable relying on them as a proxy for your ability to ship code. I don’t really disagree with your philosophy of working while you’re worki…

> Nor am I going to go on some weeks long hiring safari where I hire you for a week or two and see if you can cut it. No time man. So WHAT weeks long safari do you go on for your company? Product management? Raising fund? Sales?

On boarding. Training. Professional development. Pair programming.

It’s much more cost effective to invest in your existing people. That’s one thing I never skimp on.

Re: I have no side code projects to show you

#198

Post by rco8786 »

warcher wrote: post #31

I’m not mad at you, but as the dude on the other side of the desk, I have to decide whether you can cut it and I’m fine saying no. I could make you do some whiteboard problems, but I think whiteboard problems are pretty far removed from your day to day development and I am uncomfortable relying on them as a proxy for your ability to ship code. I don’t really disagree with your philosophy of working while you’re worki…

> unmaintainable junk

Isn't that what pretty much every side project is anyway? Unless you're an active OSS developer the chances of any of your projects being worthy of judgment is pretty slim.

I've got 10-12 repos on github I can show you...they're all half baked weekend projects that I did just to tinker with some new technology or idea I had. None of them are production quality, and most of them I'm appalled at anytime I go back and look.

Re: I have no side code projects to show you

#199

Post by eropple »

hobofan wrote: post #193
eropple wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, that doesn't happen. And I go on a lot of interviews; it's an activity that helps with a set of skills that I always need to keep sharp. And, along those lines, I get a lot of offers! But it has never-not-once been related to my Github profile. In my experience, it is employers signaling how cool they are before they ask you to do their multi-hour coding test for no money.

> before they ask you to do their multi-hour coding test for no money Where do all of you keep finding those companies? Is that an SV thing, or am I just not applying to "prestigious" enough companies? I've been on my fair share of interviews and haven't had that happen once, along with no whiteboard interviews. I can echo your experience about Github projects playing a small role apart from signaling though. Once, a…

It's pretty much a standard interview practice in Boston.

As a rule, I don't and have never consented to them because I find them exploitative.

Re: I have no side code projects to show you

#200

Post by strken »

kelnos wrote: post #32
shortsightedsid wrote: post #25

It's funny that the tech industry is so insistent on side projects. I mean - would you hire a marketing person based on their 'side projects' or a corporate lawyer purely based on their pro-bono work? Likewise, who on earth asks a building contractor if they have any side projects? You would ask for references or find a contractor via someone you know. What about recruiters themselves? How does one judge if a person…

The next time I'm interviewing in front of a hiring manager who asks me about my side coding projects, I'm going to ask them about their side managing projects.

Is this actually unrealistic? About half the managers I've had have been "working on a startup idea" or some such.
Post reply on HN