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Interviewing as a Front-End Engineer in San Francisco

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Re: Interviewing as a Front-End Engineer in San Francisco

#151

Post by debaserab2 »

gravity13 wrote: post #138
Bahamut wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just avoid using `this` unless you're sure about what it does in a particular context.

Or just learn what 'this' means because, seriously, you're a programmer and it's not that hard to figure out.

That means that every person who reads your code also must understand "this" correctly in order to interpret your code correctly.

In certain team environments, I avoid 'this' because the programmer who is looking at this file next may not understand it's proper usage.

Re: Interviewing as a Front-End Engineer in San Francisco

#152

Post by boyaka »

romanovcode wrote: post #124
Dirlewanger wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the context of software "engineering"/programming, the term engineer has been bastardized to the point of losing all meaning. To call someone who programs at all an engineer is, in my opiinion, embarrassing, especially when juxtaposed with actual engineers (e.g. mechanical, acoustical, aerospace etc.) who went through a hell of a lot more to be able to be called an engineer than a 4 year CS program. People like Jo…

I think people just like to be called engineers because they think it entitles them somehow. Next thing we'll see front-end doctors?

That is actually kind of happening. People are becoming their own front-end doctors by Googling their medical problems. In fact, this is how I've handled health issues myself. I haven't been to the doctor basically since high school (just optometrist). I assume this is similar to the way a lot of people become "software engineers".

Re: Interviewing as a Front-End Engineer in San Francisco

#153

Post by thekingshorses »

mikeleeorg wrote: post #142

As a former front-end engineering manager that has screened, interviewed, and hired tons of developers for large corps and small startups, I hear this guy's frustration and have felt it myself. I've often stepped into interviews for other departments and teams that had no FE developers to give them a hand. At the same time, I've come across far too many developers who assume "front-end" only meant HTML, CSS, and jQue…

This guy hired me based on my FE skills even though I didn't had any development experience. It was my first job as a FE engineer.

I won't be able to get a job based on algorithm/standard CS interview questions.

Re: Interviewing as a Front-End Engineer in San Francisco

#154

Post by dragonwriter »

eliah-lakhin wrote: post #149
dragonwriter wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> strictly speaking, HTML and CSS may be considered programming languages, but they lack control structures, design patterns and other interesting tenants of computer science. They are non-Turing-Complete programming languages, and part of that is having limited control structures. "Design patterns" aren't a language feature, have nothing to do with being a programming language (architecture has design patterns -- in…

> They are non-Turing-Complete programming languages Wrong! CSS is in fact a turing-complete language. :) I know it sounds weird, but it's true. Turing-completeness can be formally proved for CSS.

> Wrong! CSS is in fact a turing-complete language. :) I know it sounds weird, but it's true. Turing-completeness can be formally proved for CSS.

Where's the proof?

I am aware of a supposed proof that CSS3+HTML5 is Turing complete (but it relies on specified user interactions that aren't part of the defined execution of semantics of either language), but I've never heard of one CSS itself.

Re: Interviewing as a Front-End Engineer in San Francisco

#155

Post by onedev »

nairteashop wrote: post #136
Osiris wrote: post #51

Are algorithm questions really that useful when looking for a candidate? I find myself being really nervous about applying to other jobs because I'm not formally trained in CS. My job and side projects are mostly web sites that require knowledge about how to architecture software but I very rarely write complex algorithms. If something comes up where I need to optimize something I can usually spend some time Googling…

I think the answer to this is "it depends". When interviewing engineers at my last gig, we tried to find people who will "get things done", which in turn depends a lot on your specific job role. For a good majority of the software dev positions we had, getting things done didn't require in-depth knowledge of arcane data structures or algorithms. We just needed the candidates to be smart, and ideally have some experie…

If I hear the words "get things done" one more time, I might just flip out....

Sorry this isn't directed at you, but I view that phrase on the same level as "changing the world".

Re: Interviewing as a Front-End Engineer in San Francisco

#156

Post by pmiller2 »

edw519 wrote: post #71

I'd rather hire a smart person and teach them X then hire someone who knows everything about X but lacks creativity, logic, and reasoning. This! That one sentence pretty much addressed all of your questions and concerns. So instead on hacking the apparent process, read that sentence again and get it . This is pretty much an absolute truth in almost any industry for almost any skill. It's especially true in tech becau…

How does one go about identifying these companies that are willing to invest in smart people who might not have experience in LibraryVersion 2.1.9 or something?

Re: Interviewing as a Front-End Engineer in San Francisco

#157

Post by matwood »

steven777400 wrote: post #33

We were hiring a non-senior full-stack developer recently and I noticed there were no "frontend" questions on the list, so I added what I thought would be a question that any developer with frontend experience could answer, and would also pave the way for some more interested discussions for an advanced candidate. The question was something to the effect of "In JavaScript, what is the value of 'this' in a method?" I…

I don't even write JS much and I know 'this' is a trap question.

Re: Interviewing as a Front-End Engineer in San Francisco

#158

Post by eliah-lakhin »

dragonwriter wrote: post #154
eliah-lakhin wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They are non-Turing-Complete programming languages Wrong! CSS is in fact a turing-complete language. :) I know it sounds weird, but it's true. Turing-completeness can be formally proved for CSS.

> Wrong! CSS is in fact a turing-complete language. :) I know it sounds weird, but it's true. Turing-completeness can be formally proved for CSS. Where's the proof? I am aware of a supposed proof that CSS3+HTML5 is Turing complete (but it relies on specified user interactions that aren't part of the defined execution of semantics of either language), but I've never heard of one CSS itself.

I didn't mean that it can be proof to CSS independently of HTML of course. And I suppose this requirement is obvious at least because CSS is not executable without HTML at all.

Anyway it seems you are quite familiar with the topic, and I believe you heard all the recent buzz around rule110 etc. But a lot of people don't know about this interesting fact yet.

Re: Interviewing as a Front-End Engineer in San Francisco

#159

Post by nairteashop »

onedev wrote: post #155
nairteashop wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the answer to this is "it depends". When interviewing engineers at my last gig, we tried to find people who will "get things done", which in turn depends a lot on your specific job role. For a good majority of the software dev positions we had, getting things done didn't require in-depth knowledge of arcane data structures or algorithms. We just needed the candidates to be smart, and ideally have some experie…

If I hear the words "get things done" one more time, I might just flip out.... Sorry this isn't directed at you, but I view that phrase on the same level as "changing the world".

No offense taken, but I'm curious as to why you hate that phrase.

"Getting work done" is essentially what we're hiring people for right? As long as you can get done what you were hired to do, it shouldn't matter whether you suck at algorithms, are not a "ninja", don't fit "culturally", and whatever other weird things companies look for in candidates. It's as prosaic as it gets, and IMO it's the absolute correct metric to use.

It's as different as it gets from "changing the world", which honestly very few companies are actually doing, and is hence a source of irritation for me as well.

Re: Interviewing as a Front-End Engineer in San Francisco

#160

Post by fibbery »

sp4rki wrote: post #83
steven777400 wrote: post #33

We were hiring a non-senior full-stack developer recently and I noticed there were no "frontend" questions on the list, so I added what I thought would be a question that any developer with frontend experience could answer, and would also pave the way for some more interested discussions for an advanced candidate. The question was something to the effect of "In JavaScript, what is the value of 'this' in a method?" I…

I've been in this position also. Same question. I also added what the difference between setTimeout() and setInterval() is, and example usages of both. It's incredible that a question where the primary answer is right there in the function names causes such confusion on people that are supposedly "front end engineers with years of experience". Off course, disaster is an understatement. All three questions where the d…

Heh. The second question makes me feel a lot better about my JS knowledge. I could probably answer what 'this' is when given some code (eg are we inside a class? or a jquery event handler?) but would be hard pressed to discuss it in the abstract... whereas setTimeout and setInterval have specific differences to point to.
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