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It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

simonwillison.net

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Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#191

Post by trhway »

carnitine wrote: post #176
kebman wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this mean that the whiteboard coding interviews are flawed, or that guys like us, who has made a ton of more or less great projects are flawed? Why would a company rather have a guy that can solve binary search in five seconds, than one that has showed continuous progress with several finished projects over the years? Do they think accomplished guys somehow are a liability? Or is it that they want a blank sheet…

Binary search? I would never hire anyone who couldn’t implement it from scratch. There’s no complex idea or trick to remember, it’s the most basic algorithmic around.

a guess - you're young and have short industry experience, just enough to make very sure of yourself, so probably the age is between 25-30 with the experience between 5-10 years?

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#192

Post by yobbo »

kebman wrote: post #154
RandallBrown wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a pure engineering role things like credits at large companies, online talks, side projects, etc. are all really great ways to get an interview. I can't really remember the last time I was turned down for an interview. You're totally right about the other part though. I've lost a lot of jobs I think I could have been great at because I'm really bad at whiteboard coding interviews.

Does this mean that the whiteboard coding interviews are flawed, or that guys like us, who has made a ton of more or less great projects are flawed? Why would a company rather have a guy that can solve binary search in five seconds, than one that has showed continuous progress with several finished projects over the years? Do they think accomplished guys somehow are a liability? Or is it that they want a blank sheet…

> Does this mean that the whiteboard coding interviews are flawed

They are optimizing for something. It's just not what you think it is.

A lot of it seems to be about the identities of the employees and the hazing ritual that initiates new members into the group.

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#193

Post by codingdave »

barbarbar wrote: post #106

Is a doctor also going to publish achievements? A construction engineer should he/she publish calc of beam dimensions? A carpenter how should he/her show creations. If it was doors or windows installed in people's houses. Something is wrong here in this industry.

Every contractor I've ever hired to work on my home has a portfolio of projects they can show. Modernized folks have them online, old-school folks have binders they'll bring in to show you, but they have them, and will also provide references. As will doctors, BTW, especially surgeons. Asking to see examples of prior work is in no way unique to technology.

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#194

Post by hef19898 »

eru wrote: post #89
ipnon wrote: post #81

And still a mere semester at Stanford or year at Facebook still seems to stand out over all. The elite Silicon Valley institutions are extremely efficient at attracting, filtering and acquiring the best of the best. Their simple mention on a resume signals strongly to middle managers the world over that "the right stuff" has fallen into their lap, to the detriment of the rest of us.

> The elite Silicon Valley institutions are extremely efficient at attracting, filtering and acquiring the best of the best. Not sure. Google and Facebook have gotten so large, that they had to drop their bars quite a bit. I do agree that they are still seen as good signals on your CV. But the attraction to hiring managers might be in the same vein as the venerable 'nobody ever got fired for buying IBM'.

Having FAANG, well the A selling stuff over the internet, on your CV was a stronger thing a couple of years ago than it is now. At least my experience, but than it could be industry specific.

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#195

Post by sevagh »

trhoad wrote: post #187

You'll miss out on a whole range of engineers that have a life outside of work (which also brings some balance and maturity to the job), and therefore have no time (or inclination) to groom a public presence on the internet. Raising a family, going cycling, volunteering, reading books - these are all more valuable insights into a candidate for me, more so than your retweets.

"Why would you make a good candidate for this position?" "I actually wrote a popular open-source app that-" "Shh... do you ride a bicycle? And do you raise children?"

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#196

Post by Ueland »

jerrre wrote: post #181
otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if I forgot how to write binary search The binary search algorithm isn't something you can "forget". For a literate programmer it's like forgetting how to write the letter 'A' or forgetting which pedal is the gas and which is the brakes.

Your analogies are things that you use a large % of the time, almost any second. Whereas I've been programming for years, and never wrote a binary search (I think?), but perhaps I don't qualify as literate? I think writing an if-statement would be closer to your analogies.

Yeah, the parent commment is what I consider a reason for why many fear the imposter syndrome. They read about other developers saying "If you dont know how to do X, you suck and cant get a job".

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#197

Post by adamors »

otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #170
jameshush wrote: post #27

In my experience, for a pure engineering role, nobody seems to care. I had credits at large companies, posted talks online (interviewers rarely looked at them), but if I forgot how to write binary search in 10 minutes in an interview it didn’t matter. This actually made me realize being just an IC wasn’t actually my goal though. Once I started interviewing for management and sales, all of those things _really_ matter…

> if I forgot how to write binary search The binary search algorithm isn't something you can "forget". For a literate programmer it's like forgetting how to write the letter 'A' or forgetting which pedal is the gas and which is the brakes.

This comment is nonsense. Nobody is writing binary searches in their day-to-day jobs, and if they do it's once in a blue moon, not every day. You're using pedals every time you drive.

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#198

Post by thefr0g »

jdenning wrote: post #118
jameshush wrote: post #27

In my experience, for a pure engineering role, nobody seems to care. I had credits at large companies, posted talks online (interviewers rarely looked at them), but if I forgot how to write binary search in 10 minutes in an interview it didn’t matter. This actually made me realize being just an IC wasn’t actually my goal though. Once I started interviewing for management and sales, all of those things _really_ matter…

Definitely. I use a link shortener to track visits to my portfolio links. (Almost) Nobody looks at your public work.

I mean why would someone want to visit your online portfolio if it looks like you didn't even put in enough effort to get a proper domain?

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#199

Post by ghosty141 »

lmilcin wrote: post #164
jameshush wrote: post #27

In my experience, for a pure engineering role, nobody seems to care. I had credits at large companies, posted talks online (interviewers rarely looked at them), but if I forgot how to write binary search in 10 minutes in an interview it didn’t matter. This actually made me realize being just an IC wasn’t actually my goal though. Once I started interviewing for management and sales, all of those things _really_ matter…

> In my experience, for a pure engineering role, nobody seems to care. I am interviewing a lot of people. I look very suspicious at these kinds of moves to try to impress me. I don't necessarily ignore, but I try to figure out if this is some kind of shallow engagement. It impresses me if you can stick to something meaningful and do it regularly for years but you can just as well hurt your chances if you propose 5 si…

>A blog about programming is not going to impress me if you are still junior engineer.

I don't quite agree here. Junior engineer doesn't always say much about skill. People can have deep knowledge in a field like reverse engineering but still work as a junior because they got out of college 1-2 years ago.

When it comes to junior/senior titles I get the feeling age is more important than "skill".

I get what you're saying though, you should never act like you're a god amongst men, but blogposts that show deep knowledge aren't something I would dismiss.

Re: It doesn't take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#200

Post by z3t4 »

SlowAndCalm wrote: post #184
cableshaft wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I've had a portfolio of full video games I've coded and released on my own, as the sole programmer, that could be played on the web, had my name credited on the title screen, and you could even see the code on some of them, and I proudly included the link on my resume. Never brought up during the interview process, I was still expected to take the coding tests, and if I did a little poorly on one question I almo…

I am similar (putting my WebGL games on my portfolio) and I've found it's actually a pretty good filter of employers for me. If they bring it up and are willing to have a discussion about it, it's always a good sign. There's a wide range of topics to talk about that can relate to the possibly more boring requirements of the job. If they are dismissive of them, it tends to be an early sign that they are unable to thin…

If you are over qualified, like having published several games on your own, it's not like they don't think you can do they job, they might think you will get bored and miserable.
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