The Lesson to Unlearn

Post by pavlov » Sun, Dec 08, 2019, 1:05 AM UTC

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #460

pavlov wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've often wondered as well why tech companies seem to go out of their way to ignore portfolios. First I thought it's a misguided but honest attempt to make the process look more like a blind meritocracy, to basically turn the interview into a modern version of the Imperial Examination of ancient China. Then I read "Soul of a New Machine" by Tracy Kidder, a book that documents the design process of a minicomputer in…

The benefit of a portfolio for picking a designer is that most often the designer was the only designer on a project, therefore the design can be said to theirs, whereas programmers are seldomly the only programmer on a team and the portfolio can be unclear as to what they contributed.

Post by tr33house » Sun, Dec 08, 2019, 1:16 AM UTC

zamfi wrote: post #102

ken wrote: post #90

I'm glad he made the leap from school tests to funding tests, as it seemed to be a thinly veiled analogy from the start. I'm disappointed, though, that he didn't take the final step and admit that money itself is also a poor, hackable test. Funding, growth, usage -- these are all still one level removed from something worthwhile or beneficial. Cigarettes have amazing usage numbers even in 2019. I'm waiting for the en…

> I'm waiting for the entrepreneur who will say he doesn't care how much money he makes or how many customers he has, only that it's worthwhile and needed doing. Closest to this today might be Elon Musk, maybe...but there are other complexities there?

Post by quantdev » Sun, Dec 08, 2019, 1:30 AM UTC

arman_ashrafian wrote: post #452

anon9001 wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Write a function to return if two words are exactly "one edit" away, where an edit is: Inserting one character anywhere in the word (including at the beginning and end) Removing one character Replacing exactly one character I've been writing code my entire life, and I've been employed as a software developer for longer than I'd care to admit. I don't have a quick answer to that problem. I know there's an algorithm…

Look up "edit distance"... it is one of the first problems an Algorithms course will discuss that can be solved by dynamic programming. But ya, no way anyone is coming up with that unless they have seen it before.

Post by dennis_jeeves » Sun, Dec 08, 2019, 1:32 AM UTC

loh wrote: post #292

manca wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly what I said in my retweet to PG's essay. Having hackable bad tests in the very tech industry proves the point that artificial tests are still the way of thinking for many and something we collectively need to unlearn. The question is how.

When I see a company conducting these kinds of tests during interviews, it's a signal to me that they are probably not a very forward-thinking company, and probably not a good fit for someone like me who tends to think outside the box. If it's another cog in their machine that they want, these kinds of interview tests are probably pretty good. But if they're an innovative company trying to change the world, they'd be…

Post by dominotw » Sun, Dec 08, 2019, 1:35 AM UTC

dominotw wrote: post #309

pavlov wrote: post #240

The tech industry has unfortunately adopted the methodology of centralized hackable tests as the canonical gatekeeping method in the form of programming interviews. Most big tech companies don't care about how good you have been at delivering some value through creating software: they want to see you deliver a very specific type of performance at a whiteboard. Interviewers are given specific math puzzle questions to…

Haha here is the email i have from my facebook interview thats coming up. "Your initial Facebook interview is coming up and we want you to ace it! Here are some tips and resources so you know what to expect and can prepare adequately. Preparing is key. Our initial interview determines whether to continue with a full series of onsite interviews. This initial interview is primarily a coding interview that will take pla…