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We Only Hire the Trendiest (2016)

danluu.com

321–330 of 420 posts

Re: We Only Hire the Trendiest (2016)

#321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like I said before - I graduated from a no name college and a no name company and my average turn around time from looking to having at least two reasonable offers is less than three weeks - in 20 years. I haven’t done any side projects since 1994.

You graduated - what - 30 years ago? You presumably have more than 20 years of experience. Do you really think you're the person who needs to pad their resume out with open source contributions to make a strong resume as an IC? I'm gonna guess no. Hiring the trendiest is also a bit of an SV thing. I don't know if you're in SV or not but if your job searching doesn't involve any leetcode prep then I presume you're not…

I graduated 22 years ago. I did my last non work related side project as a sophomore in high school.

I will do “side projects” at work - low or no priority projects using new to me technology or voluntary to work on feature that would take me extra time because the underlying technology is new for me.

That has the advantage of getting feedback from coworkers, being able to work with a large infrastructure, and of course its “real world experience”.

I’m nowhere near SV, the last time I did anything approaching a LeetCode interview was my second job out of college and they really were doing some low level C coding so it was relevant for them.

Lastly, if I do jump through hoops, it won’t be for a job that just pays the median market salary that I could get anywhere. Now that I am moving toward working for consulting companies, yeah I will have to do the leetCode equivalent.

Re: We Only Hire the Trendiest (2016)

#322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

In California it is illegal. If you work in trendy software companies, startups, etc - it probably isn't common because so many people have Githubs. As a embedded software engineer, I've had specific language claiming rights to everything (one even called out "songs or other copyrightable works") I do while employed at the company at 4/4 of my post-college jobs.

All tech company jobs I’ve had (in California) had IP assignment clauses. They are not illegal. CA companies can claim ownership of IP produced by employees on their own time and equipment if it “Relate[s] at the time of conception or reduction to practice of the invention to the employer’s business, or actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development of the employer”

This is a huge loophole for larger companies who can argue that everything you do may relate to their future business.

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21754139

Re: We Only Hire the Trendiest (2016)

#323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never said that someone has to live and breathe work, only that they don't have anything _higher priority_ than work. Why wouldn’t I put many things as a high priority than work? I don’t have any equity in the company and even if I did, it’s statistically likely to be worthless if it isn’t a publicly held company. If it is a publicly held company, my contribution isn’t going to make or break it. The company definit…

> Why wouldn’t I put many things as a high priority than work? Presumably, because you expect to get paid more than someone who doesn't.

Is it going to be enough more to make a difference in my lifestyle?

Re: We Only Hire the Trendiest (2016)

#324
post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should not have made a personal attack. But I really would encourage you to consider what others have written and think about why your take on hiring is not healthy and may even be actively discriminatory against a protected class.

You'll be happy to know I have nothing to do with hiring of any kind, but just as an individual contributor it seems quite unhealthy to me to work on a team where work is my #1 priority, but everyone else's distant second. I suspect you'd find it quite ridiculous to have to pick up my slack as I have to run at 5pm to practice with my bandmates, at least if you weren't paid correspondingly more for the extra effort. C…

>I suspect you'd find it quite ridiculous to have to pick up my slack as I have to run at 5pm to practice with my bandmates

I suppose it depends what the context of "pick up the slack" means but, in general, I'd find it perfectly normal for a co-worker to take off at 5pm for an evening activity, family-related or otherwise.

I do tons of work-related travel and the like. I also don't do nights and weekends work day-to-day. Work emergencies happen (as do odd-hour conference calls) but it's rare I'll schedule evening activities around work when I'm not traveling.

Re: We Only Hire the Trendiest (2016)

#325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about denying you employment. It's about hiring someone who can ship software. If someone has publicly shipped software and you can see that, they make for a good candidate. It seems reasonable to me that people who really love writing software and do it a lot would get jobs and be successful in the industry. I wouldn't judge them on their work/life balance, some people really do enjoy programming that much.

There is a huge difference between “shipping software” and doing a git push..... I’ve actually “shipped software” that got put on production servers and people paid money for.

That's the beauty of it being published on Github. I can look at the project and see if it was just a `git push` of something meaningless or if it's actually well thought out and demonstrates ability.

Re: We Only Hire the Trendiest (2016)

#326
post #26

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…

Anecdotal but at previous job I interviewed quite a lot and found that java devs were as good on coding sessions but did worse on architecture and design / systems. Not particularly surprising really

Re: We Only Hire the Trendiest (2016)

#327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why wouldn’t I put many things as a high priority than work? Presumably, because you expect to get paid more than someone who doesn't.

Is it going to be enough more to make a difference in my lifestyle?

Obviously. If not, then don't do it. What are we even talking about? Is $400k vs $150k enough?

Re: We Only Hire the Trendiest (2016)

#328
post #277
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

James Hetfield talked about that as a reason he left. "I kind of got sick of the Bay Area, the attitudes of the people there, a little bit. They talk about how diverse they are, and things like that, and it's fine if you're diverse like them. But showing up with a deer on the bumper doesn't fly in Marin County. My form of eating organic doesn't vibe with theirs." https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/metallica-james-hetf…

1) I really wouldn't quote James Hetfield as a bastion of "tolerance", thanks. 2) Lots of old Metallica metal fans will regale you at length about how Metallica sold out to Redneck America(tm) in return for lots and lots of cash. So, lots of this kind of stuff is suspect as to whether it is genuine vs planned marketing. 3) "But showing up with a deer on the bumper doesn't fly in Marin County." Erm, actually James I k…

Just passing along a quote that I heard, nothing more.

As for your first point, he's put up with Lars Ulrich for almost 40 years now. If that's not tolerance I don't know what is.

For point 2, decrying a large portion of the country as "Redneck America(tm)" sounds like the exact type of thing Hetfield is talking about, the same as your dismissive "thanks" at the end of point 1. They sold out with the black album in 91 anyway, there was nothing "redneck" about that album.

Re: We Only Hire the Trendiest (2016)

#329
post #277
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

James Hetfield talked about that as a reason he left. "I kind of got sick of the Bay Area, the attitudes of the people there, a little bit. They talk about how diverse they are, and things like that, and it's fine if you're diverse like them. But showing up with a deer on the bumper doesn't fly in Marin County. My form of eating organic doesn't vibe with theirs." https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/metallica-james-hetf…

1) I really wouldn't quote James Hetfield as a bastion of "tolerance", thanks. 2) Lots of old Metallica metal fans will regale you at length about how Metallica sold out to Redneck America(tm) in return for lots and lots of cash. So, lots of this kind of stuff is suspect as to whether it is genuine vs planned marketing. 3) "But showing up with a deer on the bumper doesn't fly in Marin County." Erm, actually James I k…

maybe that's his point, that even wealthy social circles outside of the bay area are more accepting of things like hunting.

Re: We Only Hire the Trendiest (2016)

#330
post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>isn't it clearly better to hire someone with no responsibilities outside of work Umm. No? I see nothing "clearly better" about someone just because they don't have any responsibilities.

Really. You don't see anything better about hiring someone for whom the job will be their #1 priority, and someone else for whom it will be #2 or even lower? I find that difficult to believe.

How do you know here that their job will be priority #1? Traditionally, men with families are considered more reliable because having a family demands stability. If I’m a dude who gets sucked into code, who’s to say I won’t get sucked into some other code than what I’m getting paid for.
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