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I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

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Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#111

Post by albrewer »

duxup wrote: post #29
grifball wrote: post #12

>My favorite part of the photographic process was watching prints come to life. I loved starting with a blank sheet of paper and applying various photographic methods to bring the image to life. >I found that building websites was similarly satisfying. For example, click the "Reveal Image" button to watch an image fade in to the blank canvas! I think a lot about why I went into computer science and this is the same c…

That's kinda what did AND didn't work for me when it came to programming. In college my first class was a class about C, the instructor read from the book (that appeared to be written about C for people who already knew C...) and then you worked on the assignment. I didn't have the patience at that age to work that way and dropped the class / decided programming wasn't for me. I did some other tech things and decades…

Similar thing happened to me. I had to take a C++ course (with C++ 2008 on Windows) and hated the way it was taught. I conflated that with hating programming. After I finished my engineering degree, I got frustrated with repetitive tedious manual processes, so I started automating them. As my skill grew, I realized I liked programming more than I liked being a mechanical engineer. Now I write code full time, but I'd be way farther ahead if I'd just got the CS degree to start with.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#112

Post by mtc010170 »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #79
mtc010170 wrote: post #22

Way to be! It's silly how often employers overlook the "I just really want to be part of/build this" factor. People with that make for excellent teammates.

> It's silly how often employers overlook the "I just really want to be part of/build this" factor. People with that make for excellent teammates. Every startup I've been a part of has picked up a few extremely passionate but not necessarily fully qualified people along the way. It's hard to turn down an enthusiastic candidate who really, really likes your company, so they're often given a chance. Some of them turned…

Well said, and this is especially a great point:

> Passionate people are generally good when their skills and wants align with the company, but if they're not well-aligned then the passion just amplifies every conflict.

I'm starting to see where my original comment was definitely oversimplifying the depths of this topic.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#113

Post by opan »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #86
aspencer8111 wrote: post #35

Good on you man! You: 1. Dodged a bullet (booo on any company that would reject someone with this level of passion). 2. Created your own product (which you seem even more passionate about) 3. Did all the heavy lifting to make it interesting out of the gate (provided content). Wishing you all the success!

> 1. Dodged a bullet (booo on any company that would reject someone with this level of passion). Passion is a double-edged sword: When a person's passions align closely with the company's needs, it's wonderful. But if a person's passions conflict with what the founders want, the passion can amplify the conflict. That's why it's important to understand exactly what the candidate is passionate about. If they're passion…

Small note: It's "Codecademy", not "Codeacademy". Like a mash-up of words rather than just two whole ones squished together.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#114

Post by glenneroo »

aulin wrote: post #100
dgb23 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, obedient workers. But also creative and open minded. And autonomous. Well as long as they are autonomously doing the thing I want. Scratch the creative part, I‘m already creative enough! Also loyalty is super important - for them of course. I reserve the privilege to lay them off or fire them - business is business after all.

I believe he put it in a wrong way but he has a valid point. How can you be so passionate about working in a place you never worked at? there's a big risk you're just in love with the idea and you'll be deluded once you experience it first hand. It's a risky hire if the day to day job doesn't match his big expectations.

Isn't that what probation periods are for?

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#115

Post by pkrotich »

mylons wrote: post #110
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Dodged a bullet (booo on any company that would reject someone with this level of passion). Passion is a double-edged sword: When a person's passions align closely with the company's needs, it's wonderful. But if a person's passions conflict with what the founders want, the passion can amplify the conflict. That's why it's important to understand exactly what the candidate is passionate about. If they're passion…

Why is it best to give Codeacademy the benefit of the doubt? They likely hire by committee, like any tech company. In that scenario it's entirely dependent on who the committee is. It's not like Codeacademy, or any company for that matter, has some idempotent interviewing process. If you changed the interview panels, or some of the questions, the candidate may likely have received an offer.

Have you hired anyone? Asking because your comment make it sounds like there's science to it. I don't like the committee hiring as well but team or manager level hiring can segment the company culture. Also individuals can be biased and hire based on vibes or who is like them etc. - committee brings a check to that, that's why it's common.

The truth is - you'll miss some great candidates because they simply interview poorly and of the flip side sometimes get a professional interviewee that cannot deliver once hired.

You can also get a brilliant 10x candidate but a complete asshole (e.g CEO wanna be) that will destroy your team once hired.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#116

Post by glenneroo »

xwdv wrote: post #57
mtc010170 wrote: post #22

Way to be! It's silly how often employers overlook the "I just really want to be part of/build this" factor. People with that make for excellent teammates.

Sorry but anyone who comes with that attitude is extremely naive and cannot be trusted. And is NOT a good teammate. How can you want to be part of something when you don’t even know what it’s like on the inside? What happens when you are given a task you do NOT want to be part of? What happens when a task has moral gray area? What happens if you suddenly decide you really want to be part of something else? Fuck peopl…

Way to generalize everybody who is ever enthusiastic to work somewhere - they're all untrustworthy and horrible teammates.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#117

Post by LordKano »

xtracto wrote: post #70
mtc010170 wrote: post #22

Way to be! It's silly how often employers overlook the "I just really want to be part of/build this" factor. People with that make for excellent teammates.

It's complicated. At my last startup (web application) I was in charge of hiring for the technical team. I've got an application from a guy who really really wanted to work there. But the truth is that he didn't have basic coding skills (in that, he couldn't do FizzBuzz level of coding). I really tried to get him in but in reality we would not have been able to put him in any position. I was sad because he sent the b…

Someone that passionate can probably be mentored into the skill set necessary to do the job.

I spent a year at a TA at a University and in that time I had two students who were really stellar. They were outstanding programmers. They paid attention detail and wrote elegant but easy to read code that worked. I took the time to offer both of them my assistance if they needed any help after graduation.

I play video games with one of them. The other one got out of CS and changed her major to something art related.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#118

Post by BenjiWiebe »

smegger001 wrote: post #84
OJFord wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've wondered about that when I've seen it described as 'US timezones' or similar, which on the face of it seems to just mean the Americas (modulo I have no idea if maybe Canada or somewhere South has an extra one not used in the USA) - but maybe it suggests they're pretty open to anyone anywhere who convincingly says they'll work Pacific (or whatever) hours. Good to hear it's worked out for you.

I beleive Nefoundland Canada is in its own time zone outside any the US has. but unlike most time zones it is off by 30 minutes.

Yes, Newfoundland has it's very own timezone, 2.5 hours off from Central time.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#119

Post by playpause »

officialchicken wrote: post #48
duxup wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possible loss, on the other hand "this guy wants to build his own site / make the decisions" might not be a great hire if you're trying to hire a worker drone to build a given widget. Lots of different situations could apply.

The only possible situation here is "A-types hire A-types; B-types hire C-types". If a single applicant can replace your entire engineering team (which definitely happened in this case) why wouldn't you hire them to build a widget?

Haven’t you answered your own question? Because they don’t want to build the widget you want them to build. They want to replace your whole engineering team.

What about hiring them to replace the whole engineering team, saving on salaries? Then you’re fucked when that person gets bored and leaves.

Hyper passionate individuals don’t make good hires. They might make good founders though.

Re: I was rejected by Codecademy three times, so I built my own

#120

Post by notjustanymike »

grifball wrote: post #12

>My favorite part of the photographic process was watching prints come to life. I loved starting with a blank sheet of paper and applying various photographic methods to bring the image to life. >I found that building websites was similarly satisfying. For example, click the "Reveal Image" button to watch an image fade in to the blank canvas! I think a lot about why I went into computer science and this is the same c…

I've had to focus on accessibility in our product lately, and learning to use a screenreader created a whole new version of this concept.
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