111–120 of 266 posts
Number 1 rule for hiring geeks. - Do not ask for a .doc Microsoft Word document resume Because we might be scrambling and downloading LibreOffice and converting our .latex resume to .doc, if you want to get our attention, ask for TXT, PDF or LaTeX format.
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> You think it's hard to find programmers, at any given level of skill? If it were easy to find programmers, you wouldn't have all these shops using spam-tactic recruiters to drive volume. They wouldn't need to. It's most definitely a seller's market, if programmers can take their pick of corporate gig | freelancing | startup. My last job hunt took one hour. Their search went on for two months. If they fired me I cou…
> you wouldn't have all these shops using spam-tactic recruiters to drive volume. I think those are unrelated concepts. I think connecting with the right pool of talent is an art, and a lot of shops are completely artless. > It's most definitely a seller's market, if programmers can take their pick Maybe I've been lucky, but I've never worked at a company that felt like we couldn't take our pick of applicants. Especi…
There's an excluded middle here, where the ability of a company to choose correctly (avoid false negatives) is not a given, and that they are filtering properly in the first place (as I mentioned of a rockstar-seeking YC company elsewhere in this thread).
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That's some good stuff, but I'd add a couple: 1a. Show me the office I'll be working in. Any "open plan" or "2+ people per office" setup decreases your odds of hiring me by about 93%. Not to say I'll never take a job like that, but it really, really hurts your odds. 1b. Show me the rest of the building... are there common areas where people can hang out and collaborate away from their offices, preferably with natural…
I purposely didn't include any of yours. Why? 1. Mine are issues and yours are details. If my 10 are satisfactory, I can live with your 9, even though some may not be satisfactory. But if you 9 are good and my 10 aren't, I'd last about a year before moving on because of lack of meaning. 2. Mine are about them, yours are about you. 3. Mine show interest in the big picture; yours could easily paint you as a demanding n…
Well, yes. As a non-equity employee, why should you care about "them", other than how you'll come out of working for them five years down the line? Will you have enjoyed your time there? Will you have grown as a developer?
"Creating something meaningful" only only really affects the lives of employees inasmuch as they now have something out there in the world that they can point to and brag about. That's not really as important to most people as you'd think.
The ones that it is important to? Too busy being entrepreneurs. :)
I can't even begin to describe how worthless I think most coding interviews are. Here's a contrived problem, that will never come up in our work. Now solve it by writing your code by hand without a compiler or any other tools that you would use in real life. I understand that these questions are often about seeing how you think and how you solve problems. Throwing annoyances like writing code on a whiteboard into a h…
The problem is that at least 60% of people that call themselves programmers, and seemingly have no issue getting by HR, can't code fizzbuzz, let alone whatever it is you're working on. Issue one for me as an interviewer, whenever I've needed to be in such a position, was just to figure out whether or not I was talking with a programmer. After that though I tend to agree with you. Beyond demonstrating basic competence…
I also struggle with that idea since I'm very capable of programming fizzbuzz and a lot more, but am still having a problem finding a new position.
I can't even begin to describe how worthless I think most coding interviews are. Here's a contrived problem, that will never come up in our work. Now solve it by writing your code by hand without a compiler or any other tools that you would use in real life. I understand that these questions are often about seeing how you think and how you solve problems. Throwing annoyances like writing code on a whiteboard into a h…
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Your 'Zap' is bothering me. What happened to Baz?
What comes after baz? I've seen some use quux but having 4 letters bothers me
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Writing code by hand reveals far more than you give it credit for. Someone omits a semicolon? Bam, conversation about semicolons or ASI. It's not about the fanciest solution. And anyone who does it that way is foolish. It's the purest test of Language facility, and a really good springboard for all kinds of questions. Downvoters: have you actually tried to hire someone?
I'll go one further. I had an interview several years ago. Talking with the owners, small shop (6 people? 8?). We get to a "let's code something on the white board" segment. Fair enough. "Write me some code that does XYZ" (I honestly don't remember what it was - something basic but not trivial). I took the marker, went to the board, put the marker to the board, then turned around and asked a couple questions. They an…
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That's some good stuff, but I'd add a couple: 1a. Show me the office I'll be working in. Any "open plan" or "2+ people per office" setup decreases your odds of hiring me by about 93%. Not to say I'll never take a job like that, but it really, really hurts your odds. 1b. Show me the rest of the building... are there common areas where people can hang out and collaborate away from their offices, preferably with natural…
I purposely didn't include any of yours. Why? 1. Mine are issues and yours are details. If my 10 are satisfactory, I can live with your 9, even though some may not be satisfactory. But if you 9 are good and my 10 aren't, I'd last about a year before moving on because of lack of meaning. 2. Mine are about them, yours are about you. 3. Mine show interest in the big picture; yours could easily paint you as a demanding n…
Also, you seem to have a specific kind of company in mind. Your questions fit a new web startup but I can't imagine how Google (or a Wall street bank, accounting firm, consulting firm, etc.) is supposed to tell you the three biggest things they need to accomplish and when they're due. Lots of places are just looking for smart developers because there's lots of things to do rather than looking for somebody to fulfill a specific task.
Some companies have great high-level vision but terrible low-level infrastructure/culture and vice-versa. If we had to choose between the two, I suspect the two of us would make completely different choices.
What am I supposed to do instead of the cookie-cutter technical interview? Right now I do "Ask any question that starts with the phrase “tell me about a time when”." for most of the interview. I'm trying to give them an opportunity to describe technical things they've done so I can drill into details and suss out if they're exaggerating their skill-set and/or incapable of communication. For perspective, I'm a schlub…
Just came up with this, but you could ask the interviewee to teach you something programming related that he/she learned recently. That should tell you how well they communicate, can deeply show you their level of experience (and interest), and it doesn't require that they recently revisited their notes from academia. Another option would be to keep notes on programming challenges you hit (and the attempted and final…