171–180 of 230 posts
Despite having written tens of thousands of lines of open source code, I have yet to have an interviewer who has looked at that code and asked me about it.
My last interview at the company I'm at now went somewhat like this: "Your CV looks fine, we wouldn't care if you're an axe murderer, now what would you like to do/tackle?". Should have been a warning sign: interesting company to be at.
The problem with "tell me about your projects" is that it doesn't distinguish good programmers from bad. It isn't even gaming. A programmer who makes a negative net contribution to a large project may sincerely feel he is responsible for its success. All you can pick up on is their perception. At least when you ask them to write code, you can tell if they got it right or wrong.
I once learned a shocking lesson about the influence of my preconceptions when I accidentally took a developer through three rounds of interviews because he previously worked for Pivotal Labs and had a German (aka technical) accent. It wasn't until the third interview that I asked him to write an algorithm to sort an array and when he couldn't I suggested instead writing an algorithm to see whether the array was alre…
It's not to say I haven't sorted arrays, I certainly have, but whatever standard library I'm using almost always does it for me... and pretty damn well at the same time.
When I hire a developer, I ask him about the scene in 'The Social Network' with the Winklevoss twins, and ask if he knew Armie Hammer's face was CG'ed to another actors body. Depending on his answer, I know right there whether to end the phone interview, or fly him to the Valley so I can see him write code on a whiteboard.
WTF has a CG'd face got to do with anything? Seriously, I'd like to know (I've never seen that film either).
in which someone mentions that they use people's opinions about whether or not they side with the Winklevoss twins in the movie as to whether or not they would be a good co-founder.
I actually thought this comment was pretty funny, but if you didn't read the earlier article, it probably doesn't make any sense.
When I hire a developer, I ask him about the scene in 'The Social Network' with the Winklevoss twins, and ask if he knew Armie Hammer's face was CG'ed to another actors body. Depending on his answer, I know right there whether to end the phone interview, or fly him to the Valley so I can see him write code on a whiteboard.
I guarantee with that hiring process, that you will not want to work with me. Given your interview process, the feeling is likely to be mutual. (I don't watch TV or most movies, haven't seen The Social Network , and have no interest in doing so. If that is what you value, then I'm going to be a poor fit from both sides.)
I get a really good insight in the candidate's programming skills by pair-programming a simple problem with them. For TDD, I write a test and ask him / her to write the code to make it pass (then repeat, refactor). That way, I can see how fluent they are in the programming language, at the same time evaluate their problem solving skills and see how they work in a team.
They used vim and textmate. As an emacsian that didn't have any firm understanding of those editors, it was .. frustrating. Lots of times with 'oops, what did I do now?'.
The spare time issue is an interesting one. One one side we have companies saying that they look for programmers who are working on projects after they get off work and on weekends. On the other side we have companies having employees sign a contract claiming that everything they do 24/7 belongs to the company. Often both sides are the same company. It's not an issue for me only because I work for my own firm, someth…
To be honest everywhere that I have applied as a programmer has either had the 24/7 rule or a contract so unspecific that it leads me to think that they will try to take ownership of something I write if it does indeed lead to a valuable product. As such I am usually working on projects in my free time but I rarely want to tell them about a real project for fear of them trying to take it. It creates a difficult situa…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Virtually all employment in the US is at will, meaning you are continually on "probation". The difference between a contractor and an FT is that the contractor is 1099'd, pays both halves of FICA taxes, and isn't provided health insurance; more importantly, when the employer is as overt about the issue as "not hiring you full time", there's no implied social contract or norm ensuring you'll even end up getting the jo…
Agreed, but most states as well as federal laws also prohibit discrimination, and companies of any size/sophistication have HR policies to be sure they avoid being vulnerable to discrimination lawsuits in todays litigious climate. Probably fairly safe to fire a 20 - 30 year old white male for "any reason" but firing a minority or female or older person has to be done more carefully, following all established policy.…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Contractors make significantly more money than full time devs partly for this reason I've always heard that, yet when I look for contract work, it's always at equivalent or less than my hourly equivalent as a full-time dev. Full time was $100k - $115k/yr, contract was $40 - $50/hr, in the SF Bay Area.
Then you're looking for contracts from the wrong kinds of companies; standard rates for most folks with a decent amount of experience start around $100/hr, more for short contracts, maybe a little less for longer ones or preferred repeat clients.