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VP of Engineering - "best of the best" = no more than 12 years experience?

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Re: VP of Engineering - "best of the best" = no more than 12 years experience?

#81

Post by teh_klev »

[deleted] wrote: post #68
geuis wrote: post #58

This is going to probably bite me in the ass because I'm looking for work at the moment and occasionally apply to interesting YC companies but since this has come up, I'm going to share my story here because of the negative experience I had with the company in question. I had a phone screen with 500friends recently. They were late calling me, and the person I was scheduled to talk with wasn't even on the call. They h…

[deleted]

Parent was in no way suggesting he/she was "too good to implement a linked list". The point being made was that being a logic problem solving performing monkey doesn't really say much about your practical abilities in real world apps.

Re: VP of Engineering - "best of the best" = no more than 12 years experience?

#82

Post by justinY »

freework wrote: post #4

This company has been looking for a VP of Engineering since at least last summer. I applied for this position back then. They got back to me with a ridiculous busy-work problem they wanted me to solve. I forgot then about them.

It has been no longer than 3 months...

Re: VP of Engineering - "best of the best" = no more than 12 years experience?

#83

Post by trimbo »

krapp wrote: post #74
zpk wrote: post #70

Hey right over here everyone!!! This is called ageism. If you write code and you are over 35, you are toast. Yes even you the "above average coder"...done and done. Now wait till that immigration bill passes, make 150k? GOOD ___ing BYE.

If you write code and you are over 35, you are toast. In SV, maybe. Hopefully not so much elsewhere or I'm gonna have a hard time paying off my student loans...

It's not even true in SV.

Re: VP of Engineering - "best of the best" = no more than 12 years experience?

#84

Post by el_fuser »

justinY wrote: post #75

The reason for this is that if you haven't been coding (just managing) for 12+ years...you probably are not "hands-on" enough for a company of our stage. We have gotten a lot of very smart but "big company" people who had applied for this position. Sorry for the confusion however, most of our team is actually MUCH holder than the typical start-up: 500friends.com/team. We may be a lot of things but are definitely not…

Before you edit much further:

We want someone who has less than 12 years of MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE. The reason is that if you haven't been coding for 12+ years...you probably are not "hands-on" enough

This arbitrary cutoff makes absolutely no sense. I'd like to see your quantification of skill drop off per year of management.

If what you are wanting is a hands-on technical manager, then you need to say so.

And it shouldn't matter if the person has been hands on for 5 years or 20.

But I feel I'm being a little too generous regarding your motives here.

Re: VP of Engineering - "best of the best" = no more than 12 years experience?

#85

Post by jpalioto »

geuis wrote: post #58

This is going to probably bite me in the ass because I'm looking for work at the moment and occasionally apply to interesting YC companies but since this has come up, I'm going to share my story here because of the negative experience I had with the company in question. I had a phone screen with 500friends recently. They were late calling me, and the person I was scheduled to talk with wasn't even on the call. They h…

Cargo cult interviewing at its best. It seems like they may be more experienced interviewing for jobs rather than properly interviewing candidates and building solid teams.

Re: VP of Engineering - "best of the best" = no more than 12 years experience?

#86

Post by el_fuser »

teh_klev wrote: post #81
[deleted] wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

Parent was in no way suggesting he/she was "too good to implement a linked list". The point being made was that being a logic problem solving performing monkey doesn't really say much about your practical abilities in real world apps.

Not to mention having negligible relevance to your ability to lead an engineering staff.

Re: VP of Engineering - "best of the best" = no more than 12 years experience?

#87

Post by justinY »

el_fuser wrote: post #84
justinY wrote: post #75

The reason for this is that if you haven't been coding (just managing) for 12+ years...you probably are not "hands-on" enough for a company of our stage. We have gotten a lot of very smart but "big company" people who had applied for this position. Sorry for the confusion however, most of our team is actually MUCH holder than the typical start-up: 500friends.com/team. We may be a lot of things but are definitely not…

Before you edit much further: We want someone who has less than 12 years of MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE. The reason is that if you haven't been coding for 12+ years...you probably are not "hands-on" enough This arbitrary cutoff makes absolutely no sense. I'd like to see your quantification of skill drop off per year of management. If what you are wanting is a hands-on technical manager, then you need to say so. And it shou…

this has caused so many misinterpretations that I have edited it out of the post completely...

But essentially, the ideal candidate was someone who was CODING 5-12 years ago...

Re: VP of Engineering - "best of the best" = no more than 12 years experience?

#88

Post by justinY »

jbae29 wrote: post #34

It appears to say that they want (ideally) someone with 5-12 years of experience managing a team, after a successful career as an individual contributor. To me, that implies that they don't someone who has been just a manager for the last twenty years. So it's possible that you could have been a developer for twenty years and then a manager for ten years and still be within their ideal range. Considering the CEO is a…

YES, YOU ARE CORRECT, THANK YOU.

And my team is very senior - check them out @ 500friends.com/team. We definitely value experience at 500friends.

Re: VP of Engineering - "best of the best" = no more than 12 years experience?

#89

Post by [deleted] »

nayefc wrote: post #78
[deleted] wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

I believe the person is saying that it is okay to asked linked lists questions, but you must also ask practical questions. In your case, why not ask about linked lists, and then ask why in a CRUD app the models are ending up in a mixed up state when you add a second application server?

[deleted]
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