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How To Hire Me (or any other programmer)

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Re: How To Hire Me (or any other programmer)

#211

Post by vellum »

zanny wrote: post #139
potatolicious wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll be somewhat blunt - but this isn't meant as disrespect for you. The software industry is highly bimodal. There are two very, very clear camps - you fall into the other camp than most HNers. The market for mid-top end talent is a huge sellers market. There aren't enough people to go around, salaries inflate double-digit percentages every year, and crazily does not seem to be stopping. The market for low-end warm-…

I agree on the two camps ideology, and this is HN after all, so I'll ask - how to you get into the sellers market? I graduated with my CS degree with an ok 3.4 GPA recently, and I cast a wide net on jobs from Django to openCL, but everywhere I apply I either get cold shoulders, a 30 minute phone interview that never gets a response even with follow up, or rejection on a lack of project experience. I've been working F…

Hang out in NY or Boston. Attend every meetup you can find and let people know you're looking for a job. You don't have to be super pushy. Just do it in the middle of explaining your background.

-“What kind of work do you do?”

-“I do this, this and this. I just graduated and I'm hoping to find some work or freelance gigs. You?”

Re: How To Hire Me (or any other programmer)

#212

Post by vellum »

chetanahuja wrote: post #177
vinceguidry wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

"unqualified/foreign/unmotivated" So "foreign" is in the same category as unqualified and/or unmotivated ? WTF ???

H1B visas are hard to get.

Re: How To Hire Me (or any other programmer)

#214

Post by alok-g »

edw519 wrote: post #23

How to hire me: 1. Tell me about the 3 biggest things you must accomplish. 2. Tell me why you must accomplish them. 3. Tell me when you must accomplish them by. 4. Tell me how you intend to accomplish them. 5. Tell me what you're already doing to accomplish them. 6. Tell me the role you envision me playing in accomplishing them. 7. Tell me what you expect from me. 8. Put me with some of the key people already working…

Much of this sounds like a joke [1] to me really as the most of the companies I have interviewed with won't tell all this even after signing an NDA. Even asking such questions elicits a strange look (don't you know we cannot disclose what we are working on).

A second question then is why did they ask for an NDA then, and the answer is "company policy". I have refused to sign such NDAs, and they have refused to interview me then.

Interestingly here is something that has worked: I have signed such NDAs with my annotation saying something like "It is mutually understood that this NDA is null and meaningless" right above my signatures, and they do not have any issue with that. Well, as far as I "signed" the NDA per the company policy!

This has been the case with several big name companies I have interviewed with.

[1] Not making fun of you here, rather of the companies and bureaucracy.

Re: How To Hire Me (or any other programmer)

#215

Post by dinkumthinkum »

edw519 wrote: post #99
mindcrime wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Honestly, and I don't mean this in a bad way, I find your criticism of the parents response to you a little silly and kind off putting. If I interviewed someone and he or she put a list like that in front of me I'd probably just put in the reject pile. It's a little pompous for an interview. Just being honest.

Re: How To Hire Me (or any other programmer)

#216

Post by dinkumthinkum »

vinceguidry wrote: post #162
derefr wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2. Mine are about them, yours are about you. 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 c…

> 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? Because when you work at a company you don't care for, you are contributing to a toxic environment, which can hurt your career prospects much more than a sub-par salary, by making you caustic and bitter. If you come out of a job in anything other than high spirits, that…

Why wouldn't you optimize for salary, if it is a bad place to work, you could, you know ... leave ... As far as becoming bitter ... sounds like a personal problem!

Re: How To Hire Me (or any other programmer)

#217

Post by [deleted] »

prophetjohn wrote: post #168
pkteison wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? It has a more clear meaning than just 'understand', and a 'huh' response should be a pretty good filter for an unsuitable candidate.

Wait, not knowing what "grok" means is a "pretty good" filter for a person who is unsuitable for a role as software engineer?

[deleted]

Re: How To Hire Me (or any other programmer)

#218

Post by philsnow »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #63
pkteison wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? It has a more clear meaning than just 'understand', and a 'huh' response should be a pretty good filter for an unsuitable candidate.

People who use grok properly in conversation move up a rung on my opinion-o-ladder.

While the term is firmly established within the jargon (and with good reason, it's a good word to have in the jargon), I have enough distaste for much of Heinlein's work that I don't generally use the term.

I'd have to find some other way to climb your opinion ladder ;)

Re: How To Hire Me (or any other programmer)

#219

Post by dinkumthinkum »

VikingCoder wrote: post #57

When I'm involved in interviewing someone, one of the interviews will be cookie-cutter. I've seen with my own eyes applicants who had stellar resumes, had great conversations with everyone they talked to... and could not pass a Cookie-Cutter Technical Interview. You may think that it's insulting to have to pass a Cookie-Cutter Technical Interview, but we are not (generally) a Professional group - we don't have a Bar…

> And I'm sorry, but it's a Buyer's Market.

In what universe is this true. I don't want to imply anything but I feel like maybe you're not sure what "buyer's market" means. That would imply that employer's have large pool to pick from an those looking for a job are essentially lucky to find one. I don't think you meant that ... I'd hope if you are really in charge of hiring people you wouldn't think that because, I feel perhaps you wouldn't be the right person to be in charge of hiring due to not recognizing what is happening in the world at this moment (3/23/2013). :(

On a side note, I hear the thing about FizzBuzz a lot. I find it, personally, hard to believe that it is common for someone to pass an interview that probed to any depth, pass with flying colors, and not be able to code FizzBuzz. I would think the person directing the conversation was not doing a good job.

And the ++i vs i++ .. that's pretty basic stuff, I get that that's potentially part of your point, but that is just silly stuff.

Re: How To Hire Me (or any other programmer)

#220

Post by philsnow »

niggler wrote: post #46
edw519 wrote: post #23

How to hire me: 1. Tell me about the 3 biggest things you must accomplish. 2. Tell me why you must accomplish them. 3. Tell me when you must accomplish them by. 4. Tell me how you intend to accomplish them. 5. Tell me what you're already doing to accomplish them. 6. Tell me the role you envision me playing in accomplishing them. 7. Tell me what you expect from me. 8. Put me with some of the key people already working…

" 10. Take me to a Chinese buffet." I've had so many bad experiences with Chinese buffets that I steer clear of any place that would suggest that.

I mentally substituted "dim sum" for "a chinese buffet" because the latter just doesn't make any damn sense to me.
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