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Want to hire the best programmers? Offer growth

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Re: Want to hire the best programmers? Offer growth

#211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did she take a job as a tester if she was a CS grad with developer aspirations?

Why not? I do contract work for a big, public company, they have dozens of QA testers and every path is available for them (becoming a dev, analyst, manager, ... I've seen all). It's not even just an entry job for CS grads, many become senior testers as well and don't want to move to a dev position.

Edit: this was dumb I'm sorry I shouldn't get mad on the internet I apologize

Re: Want to hire the best programmers? Offer growth

#212

Don't give coding quizzes if they can provide better evidence of their ability. It's unfair in the least, rude at the worst to pigeon-hole "senior" programmers into scenarios / pop quizzes. Let them show off recent personal projects. They'll probably have no problem spending a weekend hacking on something they're passionate about. Be a serious employer: Convince the best programmers (whatever that means) why they sho…

> They'll probably have no problem spending a weekend hacking on something they're passionate about.

I would much rather a coding quiz than be asked to do something in my own time. It is already enough of an imposition on my time to go to the actual interview, without there being homework too. Being expected to have already done side projects is even worse; it effectively punishes me for spending too much of my attention on my employer.

Asking senior devs to write simple code in an interview is, I would say, distasteful but necessary. Some "senior" devs don't seem to be able to code at all. (That's why the fizz buzz challenge was created; it was never aimed at junior devs.) Of course more advanced challenges might end in a trick that you might not notice in an interview, or you might even make silly mistakes. But that's all OK so long as there is sufficient understanding of that by the interviewer, and so long as (this is really key) there is enough discussion about your thought process.

Edit: I just re-read your post and realised you're just asking for the option of showing off a side project, rather than it being compulsory. That's definitely not so bad but it still seems a bit unfair on those of us that don't have time for it.

Re: Want to hire the best programmers? Offer growth

#213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

true story: sister was hired at a big company as a tester with degrees in bio and comp sci. The manager had her doing manual testing for a year. She aspired to be a developer. Even offered to automate testing on her own time after work. The manager told her if she has extra time, she should do more manual testing instead. When a dev position opened up on the team, he just hired some coop guy instead for it without ev…

Why did she take a job as a tester if she was a CS grad with developer aspirations?

In the OLD days that's how things worked. You got in to a company through the mail room or some other 'get to know the staff' position, then applied for better jobs in the company. Internal hires would typically be tried before looking outside since they'd have a track record that someone wasn't a flake.

Re: Want to hire the best programmers? Offer growth

#214

There's no such thing as growth in the technology field. Most of the organizations just want a specific and narrow expertise in a particular technology. If you think your 7+ years of experience in certain technology is something then you are wrong. There'll be an 18 year old who has been programing in that technology since he was 12. You'll eventually get pushed over. Employers don't want a well-rounded person. They…

Your downvoted but there is some truth in this.

I've been in the technology field for 20 years. I'm also a female coder. I was a Java Expert. Then start again with entry level with other technology. Then start again with entry level web development in my third job. Whenever you start again with a different technology stacks you become an entry level. You cannot really climb higher or grow in this profession. And that's the inherent problem with information technology. It's changing to fast.

Re: Want to hire the best programmers? Offer growth

#215
post #8

I wonder how many people in the survey interpret "opportunities for professional growth" as "opportunities to get rich". To me that makes the survey data more understandable. People, myself included, basically want more money for less hours (AKA work/life balance).

Most people want that, but I think a high percentage of programmers do truly want a job where they get opportunities to learn new things (in addition to opportunities to make money). They probably should've split the question into "promotion/raise/compensation opportunities" and "learning/skill improvement opportunities", or something.

Re: Want to hire the best programmers? Offer growth

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? I do contract work for a big, public company, they have dozens of QA testers and every path is available for them (becoming a dev, analyst, manager, ... I've seen all). It's not even just an entry job for CS grads, many become senior testers as well and don't want to move to a dev position.

Edit: this was dumb I'm sorry I shouldn't get mad on the internet I apologize

My guy you read way too much into a comment about a manager who was not trying to nurture the career path their subordinate was aspiring for. That's part of being a manager. A manager who doesn't go to bat for people like that is a shit manager. Your response is really bizarre, like you were personally attacked.

Re: Want to hire the best programmers? Offer growth

#218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a project right now that I am thinking of building a prototype for on my own time and pitching to my company, because the company will basically have to sell the idea to another business. Why would I do this? Because then I can say how much I want to be compensated for my idea getting the company new business.

I honestly wish you all the best, and hope that works for you. Just please be aware that after you've delivered, you loose power for negotiation. Therefore I would probably rethink the timeline choosen for agreeing on a reward " then I can say how much I want to be compensated for..".

I certainly do not intend to deliver anything that works before asking for compensation, I intend to show something that works and then negotiate how much it is worth.

Re: Want to hire the best programmers? Offer growth

#219

Fuck that, I've been doing this for 25 years and what I want in order of importance is: 1) Pay me 2) Autonomy

I am willing to forgo #2 if #1 is high enough.

I'm the opposite. If my living and food expenses are covered, I'll prefer full autonomy over no or minimal autonomy. You can only spend so many years doing things you're asked to do which you don't really want to do before the value added by the extra money is outweighed by the value lost from life in general becoming more depressing and less inspiring.

Re: Want to hire the best programmers? Offer growth

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People respect you more if you get things done and solve problems. Not because you have a big salary. How often do you think people respect management? That's not what the person you replied to is saying. The above person is saying that companies which pay well also tend to respect their employees more, so seek out a higher salary because those companies also tend to offer better benefits/culture.

That isn't necessarily true. There's a difference between respect and benefits/culture. Some would say that Google, in all its free lunch glory, doesn't respect its employees that well consider they've had employees go on strike due to their policies.

> Some would say that Google, in all its free lunch glory, doesn't respect its employees that well consider they've had employees go on strike due to their policies.

The protests were mostly against sexual abusers/harassers and the arbitration policies. Are you implying that most other tech companies haven't had any executive-level sexual harassers? That most other tech companies don't have forced-arbitration policies?

How many other companies openly allow their employees to organize protests through company emails and forums? Not many. The open culture is what allows people to protest.

Disclaimer: I work at Google.

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