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We only hire the best means we only hire the trendiest (2016)

danluu.com

591–600 of 653 posts

Re: We only hire the best means we only hire the trendiest (2016)

#591

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Claiming something is easy to do and then making the same errors simply diminished the strength of the argument presented. The comment comes across as "do as I say, not do as I do."

it's fun for text-based debate, but aren't you just ignoring the greater contextual situation for the sake of argument? the distance between anonymous internet comments and professional discourse is wider than what you're implying

Why should the distance between between anonymous internet comments and professional discourse be wide? If your comment is about professional matters then you should have enough professionalism to make you point appropriately.

Re: We only hire the best means we only hire the trendiest (2016)

#592

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you use a technique that cuts a lot of people, but cuts more bad people than good people, you'll still end up with plenty of good people. The difference in comparison isn't between the average and the good person who was cut, but between the good person who was cut and the good person who wasn't cut. What is the chance of the heuristic cutting someone 10% better than the best person not cut?

BTW, this is a 'solved' problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_problem

The optimal solution only picks the best candidate 37% of the time.

Re: We only hire the best means we only hire the trendiest (2016)

#593
post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to be too critical, but you have a number of grammatical errors in your comment. I believe this shows how easy it can be to get at least 2 typographical errors in even a short piece of communication. I am sure that this comment will infringe on someone's standard.

Eh. The grammar of my OP is conversational, not formal. If I were writing formally, I'd write differently.

I took it as conversational and the errors are in that vein. When speaking there is a specific flow in the words used. When writing that same conversation, specific typographical conventions are used to exhibit the spoken word flow.

Re: We only hire the best means we only hire the trendiest (2016)

#594

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll argue that Korean spoken in Seoul, South Korea is vastly different from one in Pyong Yang, North Korea, and arguably harder to learn because one can trace some of the phrasing to old way Korean was spoken which is a mix of Chinese-derived words with Korean. This is due to the language having been invented by King Sejong circa 400(?) years ago when most written language was Chinese in Korea. It's harder because y…

I think you're mostly talking about orthography (writing), and not language itself. You might be saying that because of the different writing systems, the spoken language is different today, which seems plausible. In any case, no matter how "mixed" a language's history is, I bet that for its native speakers, it is acquired as one language and feels like one language. When people learn and acquire language, they don't…

> I think you're mostly talking about orthography (writing), and not language itself. You might be saying that because of the different writing systems, the spoken language is different today, which seems plausible. In any case, no matter how "mixed" a language's history is, I bet that for its native speakers, it is acquired as one language and feels like one language. When people learn and acquire language, they don't have to trace any origins of any words.

I don't know how native speakers of other languages think about this, but for German (my mother tongue) I don't think this is true. The reason is that in German loanwords often keep their spelling. So if you want to know how to pronounce a loanword you better have a good intuition from which language it might come from and how it is pronounced in this language. By some "language nerds" in Germany it is even considered as a sign of education to apply the correct rules of the source language to form the "correct number" instead of the "Germanized number" when declining the word.

An example: The commonly used German word for "the courgette/zucchini" is "die Zucchini (singular)". And it is common usage to use "die Zucchinis" to form the plural.

Language nerds will disagree: In Italian, from which this word is loaned "zucchini" is already the plural, so the "correct" German word for this vegetable has to be "die Zucchino" and "die Zucchini" must only be used to refer to the plural. And then even more hardcore language nerds will come and and point out that "zucchino" is male in Italian, so it is wrong to make it female in German, so "der Zucchino" is the "ultimately correct" German noun for this vegetable.

I am really not kidding.

OK, for more sane examples:

You better know that "Giro" (as in "das Girokonto") or "das Cello" come from Italian - otherwise you will pronounce these German words wrongly. The same holds for "das Trottoir" (an old-fashioned German word for "the sidewalk"; the common German word is "der Bürgersteig") - you better know that this word comes from French and how French words are pronounced. I don't even want to start with English loanwords...

Re: We only hire the best means we only hire the trendiest (2016)

#595

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which ones?

I'd rather not denigrate a specific employer. The reality is that they bill your time to the government a certain way based on your qualifications, and the contract specifies what qualifications you're expected to have. If you grow or change in some way the contract doesn't capture, they can't give you a raise without losing money (since the contract pays them the same). So classically you have to switch to another j…

So were you employed by one of the companies on the list I gave or were you just sharing your experience with defense contracting in general?

Re: We only hire the best means we only hire the trendiest (2016)

#596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Be honest. Say divisive things ... get sued or prosecuted by the EEOC. There are reasons things are stated in a certain way and the net has to be cast wider than necessary. First fix the landscape of U.S. labor law, and then a discussion of efficiency and values can be productive

Mmmm not quite sure what you're thinking of, but I'm talking about starting w/ baby steps. "Do exciting work that has real impact, learn a lot, and have fun doing it." Do you know how many companies say that on their job descriptions?! All of them. Here are some examples of being (mildly) divisive and using strong language: - "We consider it a disqualifier if a candidate does not value our mission to grow and sustain…

I like your examples - it helps you understand the culture of the company more. Esp if there are some strict rules or preferences. I found that I ended up learning most of these things in an in-person interview. I could tell other aspects of the culture too - if they expected late hours, or had better work/life balance in person and that has helped me.

Re: We only hire the best means we only hire the trendiest (2016)

#597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mmmm not quite sure what you're thinking of, but I'm talking about starting w/ baby steps. "Do exciting work that has real impact, learn a lot, and have fun doing it." Do you know how many companies say that on their job descriptions?! All of them. Here are some examples of being (mildly) divisive and using strong language: - "We consider it a disqualifier if a candidate does not value our mission to grow and sustain…

""We advocate that everyone leans towards releasing and reverting. It is better to revert small changes than to spend time perfecting code. While this might rub some people the wrong way, we believe that the best way to learn is by doing." - Amplitude" I must say, this would give me pause. That kind of language tells me that they don't value testing, and likely don't value quality requirements capturing either.

Good! It sounds like you wouldn't be a good match for their engineering culture - both you and they would be unhappy. Everybody wins when they put that out there clearly.

Re: We only hire the best means we only hire the trendiest (2016)

#598
post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my best friends has a MD and an MBA degree. He currently manages a $100M investment portfolio. We chat online almost daily. He is, by far, the worst speller I know. Even after 20+ years of online conversation, I can barely understand what he's saying sometimes. He also passes bits of professional writing past me for validation, usually to check his intent. His professional writing is always perfectly spelled,…

So your argument is that your rich friend can hire people to prof read his writing. So everyone else can do that to? That does sound like a solution that will work, but maybe not practical for everyone?

[deleted]

Re: We only hire the best means we only hire the trendiest (2016)

#599
post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mmmm not quite sure what you're thinking of, but I'm talking about starting w/ baby steps. "Do exciting work that has real impact, learn a lot, and have fun doing it." Do you know how many companies say that on their job descriptions?! All of them. Here are some examples of being (mildly) divisive and using strong language: - "We consider it a disqualifier if a candidate does not value our mission to grow and sustain…

I like your examples - it helps you understand the culture of the company more. Esp if there are some strict rules or preferences. I found that I ended up learning most of these things in an in-person interview. I could tell other aspects of the culture too - if they expected late hours, or had better work/life balance in person and that has helped me.

This is exactly what motivated me to build Key Values!! These are things people end up learning during the in-person interview (or during the first week). I don't see why we have to write cover letters, do phone screens, do take home tests, or go through coding challenges before learning this information. My goal is to reorder the steps and give job-seekers insight to a team's values before making the decision to apply/interview. If anything, it allows us to ask better questions when we first speak to or meet with interviewers.

Re: We only hire the best means we only hire the trendiest (2016)

#600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was in fact possible to go straight to a Master’s in Software Engineering. Oxford’s distance Master’s will take experience in place of a degree. https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/softeng/

Is it still possible somewhere, somehow?

Yes, the programme is still open, and will be for tyhe foreseeable future.
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