I'm only a 3x developer but I'm still hardcore.
Rules of thumb for a 1x developer
331–340 of 505 posts
Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer
#332Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those tests aren't really about engineering skill. The interviewer is checking to see how much you want the position, how hard of a worker you are, and how smart you are. If you really want the position, you will put a lot of effort into researching what the interview will entail. If you're a hard worker, you will intensively study for the interview. If you're smart, you'll be able to apply the material you studied t…
If Trivial Pursuit: Code Monkey and Engineering Edition is the interview game, that's not a place a sensible person would want to work. A sensible knowledge and performance evaluation would involve pair coding on limited scope, immediate, real problems, not BS trivia. Interviewing is a two-way street.. the signals given-off in the interview process should be taken in as a totality by the interviewee as well. If they…
Well, I think it depends on what the rewards are for getting the job. If the pay, benefits, and accreditation (resume boost) from holding a position at a given company are sufficiently valuable, it is definitely rational to play the game.
Full disclosure; I have never done an interview like this, or tried to land a job at a major 'tech' company, though I do have a degree in engineering.
Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer
#333Earlier quoted context omitted.
People overrate the elegance and readability of languages. You can write elegant and inelegant Java. I've seen python code that is totally unmaintainable and python code that's some of the most elegant out there. You can find Rails code that is some of the most indecipherable spaghetti out there despite Ruby being such an elegant language (the project had Fat Controllers, Fat Views and Fat Stored Procedures...yikes).…
> People overrate the elegance and readability of languages. > The exception to this is JS JavaScript is beautiful. You're crazy.
I think I was unclear. I meant that the exception to picking a language based on community, resources and modules are JS and Phoenix Liveview where there is an additional benefit of using a single language for frontend and backend. In these two examples you might forego using a separate language for frontend and backend (that could have a better community, resources or modules for what you are building) because you can use the same language for both (which offers the unique advantage of having to use and learn less tools for a fullstack app).
Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer
#334I used to get called a 10x developer, I was also called a rockstar and a ninja and a 100x dev and every other compliment that was hip. Then I hit 30. That type of talk stopped. Then I hit 40. Now I will not be considered for any entry level, mid level, or senior level software dev job anywhere in the United States, despite being very desperate and willing to relocate for anything. Doesn't matter. Too old. I'm suppose…
I'm 40 and had no issue finding a job as a .Net Developer with a decade of experience.
Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer
#335Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm 40 and a developer for 15 years and didn't make it past Amazon's initial code assessment. One of the problems was a floodfill algorithm, which I've never used before. Couldn't quite figure it out on my own, but found the answer in Google in about 5 minutes, which is what I would do in real life faced with this problem. I don't understand the purpose of asking people to memorize a bunch of algorithms they will pro…
Those tests aren't really about engineering skill. The interviewer is checking to see how much you want the position, how hard of a worker you are, and how smart you are. If you really want the position, you will put a lot of effort into researching what the interview will entail. If you're a hard worker, you will intensively study for the interview. If you're smart, you'll be able to apply the material you studied t…
Yep. When I interviewed at Google the recruiter suggested I study up on algorithms, data structures, sorting, graphs, recursion. They even offered a Candidate Coaching Session where you could do practice interviews. It felt like they were optimizing for people that were willing to put a lot of time into preparation .
Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer
#336I used to get called a 10x developer, I was also called a rockstar and a ninja and a 100x dev and every other compliment that was hip. Then I hit 30. That type of talk stopped. Then I hit 40. Now I will not be considered for any entry level, mid level, or senior level software dev job anywhere in the United States, despite being very desperate and willing to relocate for anything. Doesn't matter. Too old. I'm suppose…
I have a hard time believing this. Age is never really a factor for us when hiring. What does come into consideration is whether your resume is filled with "architect" and "CTO" and "tech lead" but you're applying for a mid-level role or if you apply for a more senior role and you can't solve simple technical questions. We have several engineers on our team that are 40+ that are either senior or principal developers.…
>Age is never really a factor for us when hiring. What does come into consideration is whether your resume is filled with "architect" and "CTO" and "tech lead" but you're applying for a mid-level role or if you apply for a more senior role and you can't solve simple technical questions.
You are saying that age isn't a factor while also saying that a person can be too experienced for a role. Age and experience are highly correlated. So while you aren't specifically saying it, you are certainly implying that someone can be too old for a specific role.
Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer
#337Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm 40 and a developer for 15 years and didn't make it past Amazon's initial code assessment. One of the problems was a floodfill algorithm, which I've never used before. Couldn't quite figure it out on my own, but found the answer in Google in about 5 minutes, which is what I would do in real life faced with this problem. I don't understand the purpose of asking people to memorize a bunch of algorithms they will pro…
Those tests aren't really about engineering skill. The interviewer is checking to see how much you want the position, how hard of a worker you are, and how smart you are. If you really want the position, you will put a lot of effort into researching what the interview will entail. If you're a hard worker, you will intensively study for the interview. If you're smart, you'll be able to apply the material you studied t…
It's amazing that it just took one startup to sway the majority opinion that trivia-as-job-interview is a good barometer of job success.
Not even five years ago this style of interviewing was looked down upon by most.
Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer
#338Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the deluge of recruiter spam on LinkedIn hasn't slowed down yet Recruiters spamming you is not a correlative metric for companies hiring you. SV is worse than other locations, but even the midwest company I work for (I'm also over 40) much prefers to hire people straight out of college. They're cheaper, willing to work longer hours, and easily molded into an image the company wants. EDIT: To provide a small anecdot…
> They're cheaper, willing to work longer hours So now we've hit the real root of the problem. If you expect significantly more money than competitors in your role- than ageism may not be why it's getting harder to find jobs. It isn't 'ageist' to disagree on the value of prior experience.
The real problem is looking at compensation in isolation and not as a function of productivity.
If someone aged 42 is only as productive as someone aged 22, it's perfectly reasonable to offer them only the same salary for the same job.
Of course, unless the person aged 42 has wasted 20 years of their careers (which, I concede, some have) it is highly unlikely that their productivity is really still the same.
A 42-year-old developer who has 5x the productivity of a 22-year-old developer and much more general business experience as well but only wants 3x the salary is a steal, unless you're only looking at the $$$.
Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer
#339I used to get called a 10x developer, I was also called a rockstar and a ninja and a 100x dev and every other compliment that was hip. Then I hit 30. That type of talk stopped. Then I hit 40. Now I will not be considered for any entry level, mid level, or senior level software dev job anywhere in the United States, despite being very desperate and willing to relocate for anything. Doesn't matter. Too old. I'm suppose…
Hey bro humans suck at corporacy I'm 42 and at the top of my game as a professional
You gotta see your work as an investment and not as an exchange of time for money as seems to be the governing consensus
I'm so sick of the tropes and stereotypes if one is serious about wisdom and knowledge one knows how to start at first principles
It sounds like you're playing to lose whereas if you've learned anything in all these years it's that if you don't like what's being said...
Re: Rules of thumb for a 1x developer
#340I used to get called a 10x developer, I was also called a rockstar and a ninja and a 100x dev and every other compliment that was hip. Then I hit 30. That type of talk stopped. Then I hit 40. Now I will not be considered for any entry level, mid level, or senior level software dev job anywhere in the United States, despite being very desperate and willing to relocate for anything. Doesn't matter. Too old. I'm suppose…
The best developers only have 10 years experience. 10 years is enough to understand software, process, and the rest at a deep level. You may have expertise in a particular area. You know pretty much all the things that are available to know. After 10 years, the previous experience becomes irrelevant and "drops off". The languages you learned? Gone. The APIs and weird hardware limitations? Irrelevant. Nothing beyond 1…
> After 10 years, the previous experience becomes irrelevant and "drops off". The languages you learned? Gone. The APIs and weird hardware limitations? Irrelevant. Nothing beyond 10 years matters.
The experience you're really paying for with an older developer goes way beyond that. It's having a "deep" memory of a number of projects that have failed. It's having a true understanding of the value of quality and reliability. And being able to set the right level for each situation. It's about taking the time to get the requirements right, rather than just implementing what it sounds like the customer wants, only to find out months in that they don't even know. It's about showing up to the job every day. It's about knowing better than to just jump to the next job after a few months.
If you want to experience youth, ask a young team how they're planning to deal with disasters, and watch the blank looks.
Even for the tech aspects, it's very useful to have experienced the history to know why things are the way they are now.
One of the reasons I'm so valuable now is because of what I was doing 25 years ago. As you're implicitly noting, it's hard to sell that, but that doesn't mean it's not so.