171–180 of 420 posts
My first interview at a startup I was coming from an east coast finance and healthcare engineering background.
I wore a suit to the interview.
At the end of the interview the hiring manager said “we are going to make you and offer, but don’t come back in a suit go buy some comfortable clothes.”
I worked on a big C# system with hundreds of windows servers, developed on Visual Studio etc. It was an awesome project and everything worked like clockwork. However there are very few projects using that technology so when I wanted to move I had trouble getting interviews. I'm now working with a very fashionable tech stack, its horrible, infrastructure is regularly broken, people can't trace problems easily, our fun…
I'm a C# developer at what I think is a really good dev environment. Tons of smart people here and we're highly productive. I like C# and I honestly feel boring software is better. I can't get behind chasing the latest trends. Why should I learn Node instead? Does writing backend Javascript mean you're a better developer?
Absolutely not. But as someone who does write backend Javascript I don't tolerate Microsoft development tooling because I don't tolerate Microsoft. Period.
When their core product offering is literally adware/spyware (Windows 10) to the point I have to use special builds that are difficult/expensive to get a hold of (LTSB/LTSC) I get pretty turned off in regards to the whole ecosystem.
Microsoft tooling may be right for you, but it is not for me... and Node is an outstanding tool for rapid application development with solid async capability that's open source.
I can also find/hire way ECMA devs way easier vs C#.
Also before someone rips me saying "well Visual Studio is better than everything else" - Intellij offers the same general "nice-to-haves" and doesn't come with a dependency on a broken OS.
I worked on a big C# system with hundreds of windows servers, developed on Visual Studio etc. It was an awesome project and everything worked like clockwork. However there are very few projects using that technology so when I wanted to move I had trouble getting interviews. I'm now working with a very fashionable tech stack, its horrible, infrastructure is regularly broken, people can't trace problems easily, our fun…
I'm a C# developer at what I think is a really good dev environment. Tons of smart people here and we're highly productive. I like C# and I honestly feel boring software is better. I can't get behind chasing the latest trends. Why should I learn Node instead? Does writing backend Javascript mean you're a better developer?
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Please please please P L E A S E keep in mind that a lot of developers literally cannot work on many projects in their free time because the company they work for owns everything they do on and off company time. Even contributing to open source efforts can become an issue because you're expected to ask for permission first and it can become a sticky legal issue of ownership. Companies expect and want people to work o…
In 25 years of signing employment agreements, I've never seen one that said, "the company ... owns everything they do on and off company time." Yes, if you're working on a Foo and you write a Foo on your own time, you'll have an issue. Do you have any specific lawsuits in mind?
For the specific example given I have turned down many individuals who sound like they have a similar background because they could not figure out how to work outside of their toolchain. I see it all the time with .NET and Java developers, if they are not in Visual Studios or Eclipse they don't know how to even compile their software. Both those ecosystems are fantastic and developers can be very productive, especial…
So what? Everyone has a chain they are used to. Setup that make file and forget about it is very common, even if they aren’t using an IDE. Yes, I can figure out how to work my tools by hand going through a bit of the references, but no, not in the 45 seconds you give me to answer the question of how to do it. > but it is rare you can take a .NET developer put them in front of Python or Go and have them actually be ab…
There is overwhelming evidence for this, and its been known to anyone who has had to hire engineers for a very long time. Something like 95% of people with CS degrees can't do any of the things you listed there.
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Your point is taken although I wouldn't say Node qualifies as the latest trend at this point. It feels like it has moved on to "just another tool to choose from" status to me. I suppose trendiness is relative but if you use a Google Trends search for "Isomorphic JavaScript" as a proxy for Node's trendiness[1], it was at its trendiest in 2016 and has fallen off quite a bit. [1]: https://trends.google.com/trends/explor…
> Your point is taken although I wouldn't say Node qualifies as the latest trend at this point. Honest question: does Node offer any advantage other than CV points wrt established backend tech stacks?
Lua JIT however is sane, simple and even faster, but the infrastructure and tools surrounding it are bare in comparison.
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Why node? 2 reasons: async which C# has too, and coding in just one language. And no, writing backend JavaScript doesn't mean you're better.
So coding in one language is a BIT of a red herring. It only works if the paradigms your app uses are the same in the front and back. And I have nott seen a project where the KIND of problems that need solving (in the front vs back) were close enough for the same language to be a benefit. I mean at the end of the day, I can build a house with JUST a screwdriver, but man, I'd rather use the right tool fot the specific…
Some subset of that can be achieved with stuff like GraphQL or Swagger and what not though I haven’t given it a serious try since we’ve never run into hiccups yet with this system, reliant on a very simple library.
We also use the same package manager (NPM) on both ends and can therefore invoke scripts all over our codebase with the same syntax; and although react code and node code is quite different in structure, they all have the same idioms and async syntax and stuff, so the amount of retraining necessary to convert someone from backend to full stack isn’t very large due to the same environment, and keeping code style consistent across the project is also easy.
So I feel like there’s definitely stuff to profit off of with sharing a single language.
If all they do is read the resume, then we know, based on other people's comments here, that it's clearly not good enough of a method to find the best talent. So, if this is the case, why do we keep relying on recruiters to find us talent?
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So what? Everyone has a chain they are used to. Setup that make file and forget about it is very common, even if they aren’t using an IDE. Yes, I can figure out how to work my tools by hand going through a bit of the references, but no, not in the 45 seconds you give me to answer the question of how to do it. > but it is rare you can take a .NET developer put them in front of Python or Go and have them actually be ab…
> There is absolutely no evidence for this whatsoever. The ability to program or not, the ability to abstract, generalize, arrange your code right, solve problems, ask questions, and so on, changes little when the tooling ceremonies are different. There is overwhelming evidence for this, and its been known to anyone who has had to hire engineers for a very long time. Something like 95% of people with CS degrees can't…
> Something like 95% of people with CS degrees can't do any of the things you listed there.
Again, I don’t think this is born out at all. Yes, a lot of people fail or answer that LeetCode question with that special trick solution in 45 minutes, but we don’t really have any quick tests to gauge actual ability in the hiring process.
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Is it bad that I've always worn a suit and tie to interviews? Obviously nobody else there was wearing one so I did feel a bit out of place.
That means you're interviewing in hard mode and decreasing your odds. For sure it won't help you. So it's not well advised to wear a suit to a tech interview. Unless perhaps that's genuinely how you like to dress and how you go to work. Then just make that clear at the start of the interview. Otherwise interviewers will be wondering why you're wearing a suit and are unlikely to assume it's merely an aesthetic choice…