Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

“I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

news.efinancialcareers.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

341–350 of 731 posts

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#341

Post by [deleted] »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #137
echelon wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our industry feels like it's in the decline of the Roman Empire right now. Our craft is becoming arcane: Microsoft is building VSCode for the cloud. Few people own desktop computers anymore. Apple is locking down MacOS to signed binaries. Soon we'll all have thin clients and will write software in the cloud for the cloud. Few will be able to learn how to engineer at home anymore - you'll have to go to a university or…

> Our industry feels like it's in the decline of the Roman Empire right now. .... And here I am, writing a desktop native app that targets a small niche of users, with no marketing, no advertising, and we've had our strongest year yet, and overall usage just grows slowly year over year. Maybe it's how you think things ought to be that is misaligned with reality, rather than "the decline of the Roman Empire".

[deleted]

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#342

Post by throwf129 »

anon9001 wrote: post #303
asdff wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed this a few times in my career and have had to start slowing myself down at times. If I deliver in a day instead of the expected two for example, I don't get that second day off, I get twice as much work and get paid the same for it. The harder I work, the less I make. If they want me to bust my ass and sacrifice sleep I need to be given hazard pay.

You're right, and as a result I try to work no more than 4 hours a day, preferably less. I take every possible opportunity to extend timelines, create buffer, and reduce scope. I'm highly incentivized to farm as much time as possible, so that's what I do. I try to target obscure projects that I already know how to do, where there's an assumption that nobody really knows how to do it because it's obscure. Complexity a…

I love this comment so much.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#343

Post by alisonkisk »

ssutch3 wrote: post #27
zug_zug wrote: post #8

A rather tired conversation in my opinion. Everybody likes to complain about interviews, but every single alternative I've heard is even worse: Take-homes are biased toward those willing to work hours for free, a "track record" is biased toward those who inflate their resume, a casual conversation is biased toward the likable and native english speakers, high-level whiteboarding is biased towards people who are good…

We do “take homes” that are paid at $65/hr. Still, biased toward people who can make the time.

Any process that isn't flying to rural Africa and going door to door is biased.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#344

Post by alisonkisk »

learc83 wrote: post #339
chii wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i would agree a universally accepted accreditation organization, like the American Medical Association, can make interviewing for technical competency easy. But like with AMA, they would (and does) gatekeep. What kind of policy can the organization be instituted with so that gatekeeping is impossible? Doctors _should_ be a dime a dozen. They should not cost so much - because their services are valuable and therefore,…

> Doctors _should_ be a dime a dozen. They should not cost so much - because their services are valuable and therefore, more of them should be produced to make medical costs lower. Physician salaries make up about 8% of medical costs. And even if you doubled medical school class size, you wouldn’t get 2x the doctors because there aren’t enough resident slots available. And even if you had enough slots available, you’…

You're assuming the bugs are required. Residency as it is now is a terrible system that had no need to exist in its life destroying form. The industry had already figured this out and is moving work from doctors to nurses and PAs and offshore radiologists who don't need a residency.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#345

Post by arcturus17 »

bmn__ wrote: post #257
arcturus17 wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stadia disagrees (Doom is actually on there). You can say what you want about the business model or Google itself, but the UX is impeccable. I am periodically in disbelief when I think that what I’m playing on the screen is being streamed by a server.

> UX iS iMpEcCaBlE https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/aDgDE8x_460svvp9.webm

That looks like Borderlands 3... I've beaten the game and never had such a problem.

I'll grant: it's impeccable under the right network conditions.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#346

Post by pickledcods »

echelon wrote: post #55
decafninja wrote: post #12

Unless you've made it to your "endgame" company that you're happy to stay at for a while, I feel investing anything more than the bare minimum to get your assigned work done is worth less than just grinding leetcode and otherwise studying for interviews. Doing an actual good job, above and beyond, is not going to be worth much when you're looking for your next job. Thus we're now seeing the rise of Professional Inter…

Our industry feels like it's in the decline of the Roman Empire right now. Our craft is becoming arcane: Microsoft is building VSCode for the cloud. Few people own desktop computers anymore. Apple is locking down MacOS to signed binaries. Soon we'll all have thin clients and will write software in the cloud for the cloud. Few will be able to learn how to engineer at home anymore - you'll have to go to a university or…

And then age...

I'm an eighties whizz-kid, educated hardware and software background with borderline epiphanic understanding of computer technology. From firmware to systems where peoples lives literally depend on. In 2000 jumped on a plane to Taiwan to develop the first Arduino/RaspberryPi class devices. Still up to date and currently busy polishing a ShowHN which will blow you off your socks.

Everything nowadays is shrink-wrapped out-of-the-box, hidden behind layers of frameworks. Programming languages becoming a fashion statement. Everyone seems to copy-paste stack-overflow and even then the answers are like "Why?" because it seems nobody reads specifications.

But...

Finding a job position is impossible. The excuses for rejection range from unbelief to insulting. It is so bad that I have now seriously considered leaving the field, taking 40+ years experience with me.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#347

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #137
echelon wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our industry feels like it's in the decline of the Roman Empire right now. Our craft is becoming arcane: Microsoft is building VSCode for the cloud. Few people own desktop computers anymore. Apple is locking down MacOS to signed binaries. Soon we'll all have thin clients and will write software in the cloud for the cloud. Few will be able to learn how to engineer at home anymore - you'll have to go to a university or…

> Our industry feels like it's in the decline of the Roman Empire right now. .... And here I am, writing a desktop native app that targets a small niche of users, with no marketing, no advertising, and we've had our strongest year yet, and overall usage just grows slowly year over year. Maybe it's how you think things ought to be that is misaligned with reality, rather than "the decline of the Roman Empire".

Just because one household in the empire is having a good year doesn't mean the empire isn't on the verge of collapse.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#348

Post by throwaway0a5e »

echelon wrote: post #55
decafninja wrote: post #12

Unless you've made it to your "endgame" company that you're happy to stay at for a while, I feel investing anything more than the bare minimum to get your assigned work done is worth less than just grinding leetcode and otherwise studying for interviews. Doing an actual good job, above and beyond, is not going to be worth much when you're looking for your next job. Thus we're now seeing the rise of Professional Inter…

Our industry feels like it's in the decline of the Roman Empire right now. Our craft is becoming arcane: Microsoft is building VSCode for the cloud. Few people own desktop computers anymore. Apple is locking down MacOS to signed binaries. Soon we'll all have thin clients and will write software in the cloud for the cloud. Few will be able to learn how to engineer at home anymore - you'll have to go to a university or…

>Companies are trying to hire more outside of California in order to lower wages across the board.

Lower labor costs mean lower costs passed on to the end users which means more products in the wild which means a bigger industry. It's only a problem if you're worried about being out-competed by "those hicks in the flyover states".

Techies complaining about companies moving out sounds a lot like the guy who worked the UAW system for 30yr so he could land a buddy position where he does nothing for $60/hr complaining about non-union factories and companies moving to Mexico. In both cases it's a tacit acknowledgement that the gravy train is unsustainable.

Yeah wages might be slightly lower in 40yr but that's a reflection of the difference between being an electrician in 1910 vs being an electrician in 1950 after the last of the line shaft industries had long been converted, once all the heavy lifting and low hanging fruit has been picked there's just a lot less cash sloshing around driving up prices and wages. The people who just want to be mediocre and punch a clock will still make a decent wage but the difference is that mediocrity and job hopping aren't enough to make you big bucks in a stable industry like they are in a rapidly growing industry flush with cash. In a stable industry you actually have to be worth the big bucks.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#349

Post by fennecfoxen »

py_or_dy wrote: post #183
echelon wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our industry feels like it's in the decline of the Roman Empire right now. Our craft is becoming arcane: Microsoft is building VSCode for the cloud. Few people own desktop computers anymore. Apple is locking down MacOS to signed binaries. Soon we'll all have thin clients and will write software in the cloud for the cloud. Few will be able to learn how to engineer at home anymore - you'll have to go to a university or…

Goodness, you and the OP have really hit the nail on the head. I spent the last 5 years quite happy at a simple dev shop. Then they hired a bunch of people, paid them more than me, and allowed them complete free reign to write what ever kind of code on some brand new projects. After a year of this, one person quit mid-project, another died mysteriously (covid?), and then another just recently quit. My boss expected m…

I haven’t had anything quite that bad, but I’ve had an interview where I was being tested on SQL, but the interviewer didn’t actually know the SQL keywords I used.

It happens. It’s a strong sign you want to work elsewhere anyway. The problem is one of finding the right Elsewhere.

Re: “I've had to relearn coding to get through the new interviews”

#350

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

py_or_dy wrote: post #183
echelon wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our industry feels like it's in the decline of the Roman Empire right now. Our craft is becoming arcane: Microsoft is building VSCode for the cloud. Few people own desktop computers anymore. Apple is locking down MacOS to signed binaries. Soon we'll all have thin clients and will write software in the cloud for the cloud. Few will be able to learn how to engineer at home anymore - you'll have to go to a university or…

Goodness, you and the OP have really hit the nail on the head. I spent the last 5 years quite happy at a simple dev shop. Then they hired a bunch of people, paid them more than me, and allowed them complete free reign to write what ever kind of code on some brand new projects. After a year of this, one person quit mid-project, another died mysteriously (covid?), and then another just recently quit. My boss expected m…

> Giving up basically. Just show up at 8am, answer the phone mindlessly for IT "problems" and tell people to try restarting their windows machine (at least 3 times minimum) and screw of playing solitaire the rest of the day.

You have a very holier-than-thou view of small scale IT work. There are a whole lot of problems to be solved at this level, many of them created by the people working the positions you're currently interviewing for.

Post reply on HN