The greatest resume I've ever seen • Hacker News Board

Re: The greatest resume I've ever seen

#121

Post by beachy » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 5:43 PM UTC

sdoering wrote: post #101

jasonpeacock wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> She would culturally fit What does this mean? This is a very loaded term, and without qualitative data it results in biased hiring. Usually, it means "she's young, white, and college educated, just like the rest of us". People don't need to culturally fit to excel at a role.

Interesting what you interpret into my words. With cultural fit I meant that she needs to fit into our diverse team. She should probably not have biases against people coming from different and diverse backgrounds. She needs to be able to work in a collaborative team setup within our core team as well as be able to integrate into project teams with even more diverse people. Someone who shows that they would not play…

So by cultural fit, you mean she's not racist and is a team player?

I wouldn't call that cultural fit.

Re: The greatest resume I've ever seen

#122

Post by kerblang » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 5:45 PM UTC

Just to be clear, running smoke through a sewer line is not a genius move, just standard practice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IpLABJw2KU

But certainly finding problems in old systems is a valuable skill, and it requires a willingness to do dirty work that many folks turn their nose up at, so to speak.

Re: The greatest resume I've ever seen

#123

Post by koonsolo » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 5:46 PM UTC

moron4hire wrote: post #111

andrei_says_ wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never in my 10+ year career needed to invert a binary tree.

Well, good for you. In my 20 year career, I've never not had a job that didn't eventually require me to flex my computer science degree.

Most of the time the work is trivial for all developers involved. But in some special cases, some developers might reach their limit while other don't. That is my experience.

And most of the time, you can rely on the Master degrees to pull through. Although I once worked with someone without a degree, but he could do magic like no other programmer I met.

Re: The greatest resume I've ever seen

#124

Post by t-writescode » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 5:59 PM UTC

jeffrallen wrote: post #15

> One minute he was wrangling sewer pipelines - the next minute, CI/CD pipelines I've seen CI/CD configs where you couldn't tell the difference! :)

Hey now, that’s an insult to indoor plumbing xD

I wish some CI/CD pipelines were as good as sewers

Re: The greatest resume I've ever seen

#125

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 6:04 PM UTC

moron4hire wrote: post #43

monster_group wrote: post #7

Interviewer - "That's impressive Daniel. Now can you invert a binary tree on the whiteboard?"

Jesus christ. Inverting a binary tree is not hard. That people keep using this as a joke is more a testament to the stubbornness of people believing they shouldn't have to do no learnin' no more than it is bad interviewing practices.

[deleted]

Re: The greatest resume I've ever seen

#126

Post by mcntsh » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 6:38 PM UTC

eps wrote: post #69

mcntsh wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> shouldn't have to do no learnin' Expecting engineers to develop skills they don't learn/use in their actual professions to prove they're capable of working a job makes no sense. If these leetcode puzzles were actually relevant, why do so many engineers have to spend time outside of work "grinding" in order to get better at them?

Reversing a tree is not a skill . It's a test of rudimentary experience working with fundamental data strutures. You are not expected to know the solution, but you are expected to produce one if asked. "Leetcode puzzles"... jeez.

Again, if this "experience" so "rudimentary", why do top engineers spend time on leetcode trying to get better for interviews? Wouldn't this "rudimentary" experience be learned through their, you know, actual work experience?

Re: The greatest resume I've ever seen

#127

Post by Consultant32452 » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 6:50 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #118

Consultant32452 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been responsible for hiring for most of the last 20 years. I've literally never had a false positive where I recommended someone and they performed poorly. I have had one case where I said no, was overruled, and then the person turned out to be awful. To be fair, I have no idea how many false negatives I've had where I said no but they would've been great. I'm always puzzled by people/companies who find this dif…

I always thought a huge blind spot in hiring is that nobody counts or worries about false negatives: Those people who you said "no" to but would have turned out to be great. False positives are often, but not always, easy to spot, and you can know and feel regret about how many hires turned out to be low performers. But it's hard to know or feel regret about the people you turn away. I mean, how would you even track…

I never worry about this. I usually have some idea of what I am looking for: junior, senior, architect. I just want to find someone suitable in an efficient manner. There's tons of solid candidates out there, it's not my responsibility to make sure the ones who get too nervous to communicate during an interview are taken care of.

Re: The greatest resume I've ever seen

#128

Post by stuff4ben » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 6:55 PM UTC

Kranar wrote: post #120

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Exactly, it's so sad hearing someone not realize that their hiring process is basically discriminatory in nature. I've come to the sad conclusion that this is a fundamental tension. Ignoring the pre-interview filtering, our industry has, on one end of the spectrum, a relatively nondiscriminatory process that assumes basically nothing and tests you on as much of the field as they can before hiring. It's nondiscrimin…

I agree there is tension and it's imperfect and I don't think one needs to go to one extreme or another... but GP literally said that they hired someone who didn't know "the first thing about programming" who took a single course on Java programming and just hired that person because they had the "chops and passion". That is what I am criticizing as not being helpful. If someone has the chops and passion for a job, t…

It was a fresh college graduate, I don't expect them to know shit about software development honestly. What I do expect is for them to work hard and show passion for what they're doing and the learning process. I expect to see prior experience of self-motivation and hard work which is easily teased out in the interview process.

This person became one of those legendary developers that could do the work of 3 without breaking a sweat. I interviewed tons of people from the same university with actual CS degrees and knowledge of data structures and algorithms. I actually hired lots of them and only a few were as competent as this person was. Your degrees and knowledge of a few data structures and algorithms mean nothing if you're lazy and don't show passion for what you're doing.

Re: The greatest resume I've ever seen

#129

Post by stuff4ben » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 7:01 PM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #110

stuff4ben wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So by your reckoning, old people with families and a life outside of work are... stupid and don't do anything? Are you serious? Being smart and showing you have great motivation to get things done in NO WAY relates to how old you are, if you have a family, or a life outside of work.

Most places I've seen want people to work extra hours consistently. Or at a bare minimum reward people working extra to the detriment of those working the normal hours. For example, Bob works 8 hours per day and completes 80 units of work but Steve works 10 hours per day and completes 90 units of work. If you get enough 'Steves' in the organization then the remaining 'Bobs' look like slackers. If you can't work 10 ho…

Sorry you've had that experience. Most places I've worked at, actually -every place- I've worked at, has rewarded me for doing the job and doing it well. Do I occasionally work a few hours extra here and there? Sure, but that's the exception not the rule. I'm mid-40s and have kids and a life outside of work. I don't do extra unless I'm self-motivated to do it or it's a rare requirement from the boss to get something done.

Re: The greatest resume I've ever seen

#130

Post by cvhashim » Thu, Sep 30, 2021, 7:13 PM UTC

jasonladuke0311 wrote: post #46

If companies truly care about diversity of thought as they say they do, there is a massive untapped group who really bring fresh perspectives: older career-changers. I might be biased as I belong to that group, but I have met some fantastic people from that group.

I had a tech lead who was once a chef before he switched careers into tech.