Live data from Hacker News

We created a fake language to root out resume liars

facebook.com

611–620 of 771 posts

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#611
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good take. I like to play chess recreationally; I also know I'm terrible at chess. Never in a thousand years would I put it on my resume.

It depends where. Under skills seems silly, but under interests seems reasonable. I have a single line on my resume with interests. I don’t list chess, but list cryptography. Because I’m interested in it. I just have that line to help with chitchat during the interview. If some interviewer interpreted that to mean I was a professional cryptographer and that I sucked at it, that would be dumb of them. I also list an i…

Good point!

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#612

I've always had trouble with my worth as a developer. There are multiple reasons I won't get into, but the recruiter I used to get hired at my current employer helped me drive my salary request way North of what I was comfortable negotiating for on my own. I grappled with whether or not I deserved it, and still do at times, but I was obviously very appreciative - regardless of their reasoning. Now that I've been prom…

My guess is that salary is mostly unrelated to one's skills. It mostly depends on what company you work for, and your negotiation skills. Actual knowledge and skills are maybe on the third place. There is also timing: if you join when the company desperately needs another developer, you may get better deal than the developers who are already there. Also, whom you know, who recommends you.

I know a guy who is 10x smarter than me, but is paid 1/2 of what I am. It's because he works at a different company. (I used to work there, too, and then my salary was 1/2 of what it is now. I didn't get twice as smart when I changed jobs.)

I know a gal who is 10x smarter than me, but is paid about as much as I am. It's because she works at the same company.

In my opinion, software companies are unable to tell the difference between developers. The bad ones are overpaid, the good ones are underpaid. Smart developers learn to code; smarter developers learn to network.

From this perspective, it makes sense to contact a job agency and tell them you want 2× what you have now. Chances are, there is a company where people with your skills (or worse) are paid that much. It just takes lot of luck to find that company. Call ten different job agencies, tell them that you only accept that much... and let them search the market. You may be surprised.

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#613
This topic got me reading on how recruiters made unauthorized changes to people's CVs, then someone mentioned about managing their CV in LaTeX and 3 hours later, I have managed to migrate my CV to LaTeX (it is actually quite nice to use). And the quality and polish of the pdf generated is on a totally different level compared to the word document I was managing with.

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"But can you code in API? I don't want your life story, just answer me! Do you know API?!" I'm so lucky, I think I found the best recruiter in all Vancouver. He helped me get my ideal role and was generally kind and competent. Just to offset the horror stories.

"I can code an API, yes."

"Good."

Writes in resume: 10 years coding in API, expert level.

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#615

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a recruiter say "XML and UML are basically the same, right?". There's almost a dangerous level of knowledge among some recruiters where they think they know enough to do crap like this.

they’re 66% the same thing. yes /s

the important part is that either makes you an expert on ML :)

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#616

I've always had trouble with my worth as a developer. There are multiple reasons I won't get into, but the recruiter I used to get hired at my current employer helped me drive my salary request way North of what I was comfortable negotiating for on my own. I grappled with whether or not I deserved it, and still do at times, but I was obviously very appreciative - regardless of their reasoning. Now that I've been prom…

Whether or not anyone "deserves" the money is probably not really your problem (in an org chart sense), and I think you should be happy with whatever "excess" you or the candidates are receiving. Don't internalize the capitalism too much, I guess is what I'm saying. If you think someone will do what you need them to do in a role, and the company is willing to pay them N dollars for it, all is well.

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#617

> That way, when candidates were pitched to us with "X years of MOVA experience", we knew that somebody was full of it. I'd put my money on the recruiter. I once had an excruciatingly awkward interview at a company on an industrial estate in the middle of nowhereland with no train station nearby that took me bloody ages to get to… which was actually going well until they asked me about my long experience with Exchang…

Had the almost exact same experience, but with Java. I'm a C# developer and although I have some experience with Java, I don't have enough to list it as a skill on my CV. Anyways, in this interview I was being asked about Java and I answered every question by saying I don't really know Java. The interviewers were obviously getting annoyed. So I asked "Sorry, I thought this was a C# job?". No, it was a Java job and ma…

> Anyways, in this interview I was being asked about Java and I answered every question by saying I don't really know Java. The interviewers were obviously getting annoyed. So I asked "Sorry, I thought this was a C# job?".

Are those types of exchanges still take place at the interviews? I was lucky enough to avoid them, having worked at companies that are able to afford to spend extra time training people. Those types of discussions often remind me of the Linus' quote: "Bad programmers worry about the code. Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships."

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#618

> That way, when candidates were pitched to us with "X years of MOVA experience", we knew that somebody was full of it. I'd put my money on the recruiter. I once had an excruciatingly awkward interview at a company on an industrial estate in the middle of nowhereland with no train station nearby that took me bloody ages to get to… which was actually going well until they asked me about my long experience with Exchang…

Had the almost exact same experience, but with Java. I'm a C# developer and although I have some experience with Java, I don't have enough to list it as a skill on my CV. Anyways, in this interview I was being asked about Java and I answered every question by saying I don't really know Java. The interviewers were obviously getting annoyed. So I asked "Sorry, I thought this was a C# job?". No, it was a Java job and ma…

News flash: You can open a PDF with Word and edit it.

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#619
post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

C# and Java the language are similar enough; the ecosystems are very different. A C# developer would mostly be expecting to develop Windows programs or possibly Windows server / IIS applications. A Java developer could be working on all kinds of different things.

Yup. Very similar language, but good luck going from ASP.NET MVC to Spring Boot without missing a beat. Or from WinForms and WPF to Swing and whatever else is new and hot in Java-land. Not to mention NuGet vs Maven, EntityFramework vs Hibernate, etc.

No one said there wouldn't be some ramp up time. Especially if there is another senior Java dev on the team that can "show the ropes", I don't think its that bad.

If we're talking about a lead or solo dev position, it would cause issues though.

Re: We created a fake language to root out resume liars

#620
post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've been to plenty of interviews where my CV hasn't been given more than a glance. I do technical interviews and I never look at CVs before doing the interview. I do this to avoid bias. I want to treat them the same no matter if they went to Stanford or were not working for 10 years or if this is their first job. Also, people are adaptable, and soft skills matter a lot. So the error bars for recruiting even based…

> I want to treat them the same no matter if they went to Stanford or were not working for 10 years or if this is their first job. I don't agree. If I'm interviewing someone straight out of college there are things I wouldn't expect them to really know and focus on whether they are focused and motivated enough to learn those things on the job. If the person at 15 years experience and doesn't know things which are a n…

I try to let the expectations for the interview be set by the expectations they will find when they start.

It's useful to know what you're looking for when you go out in to the market...

Post reply on HN