On Interviewing as a Junior Dev • Hacker News Board

Re: On Interviewing as a Junior Dev

#91

Post by shamney » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 7:54 PM UTC

tomlock wrote: post #78

throwaway9121 wrote: post #68

You'd have to be crazy to hire this person. Let's check the boxes. ✓ Post dripping with entitlement ✓ Arrogantly rejects companies for reasons such as being located an an unhip suburb ✓ Finds offense in almost anything that happens in an interview ✓ Degree in Ethnography ✓ 6 month feminist coding bootcamp ✓ 6 month failed internship ✓ Fluffed up github with virtually no actual code The lines of code to sexual harassm…

If you remove the "6 month feminist coding bootcamp" line, this post could be mistaken for a summary of the career of a young Steve Jobs. Hopefully this developer has found a company where she isn't harassed by sneering bros, and then actually has the time to write some code.

would you really want to hire a young steve jobs for a junior software developer position?!

Re: On Interviewing as a Junior Dev

#92

Post by tomlock » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 10:23 PM UTC

shamney wrote: post #91

tomlock wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you remove the "6 month feminist coding bootcamp" line, this post could be mistaken for a summary of the career of a young Steve Jobs. Hopefully this developer has found a company where she isn't harassed by sneering bros, and then actually has the time to write some code.

would you really want to hire a young steve jobs for a junior software developer position?!

He was widely considered a genius so I think he could do at least alright in the role :)

Re: On Interviewing as a Junior Dev

#93

Post by seanmcdirmid » Tue, Dec 09, 2014, 11:34 PM UTC

jarek wrote: post #82

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was living in Seattle, I would visit Rainer, North Cascade, or Olympic every weekend in the summer; how many cities are 2 hours away from some of the best national parks in the world on 3 sides? There is a reason seattle has the highest sales of sunglasses per capita in the states. US immigration is fast with or without a usa passport, well, at least it never takes four freaking hours; in Seattle its max 20 mi…

Well that is a fair point. From Seattle you can choose from mountains, mountains, or mountains, from London you have to settle for city, country, or mountains :)

Well, its mountains, mountains, mountains, or mountains, but I don't think the east cascades is organized into a national park (though people go skiing there). We also have country (including that yearly tulip festival thingy up toward Bellingham). In Europe, you'd have to go to the Alps to get anything like that (or Norway for lakes and floating bridges).

If you find cities very interesting, I'm sure London is very interesting. But if you are into the outdoors, the west coast of the USA is actually pretty nice.

Re: On Interviewing as a Junior Dev

#94

Post by Perdition » Wed, Dec 10, 2014, 9:06 AM UTC

tomlock wrote: post #74

Perdition wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Not using a different challenge Like what? Even something like maths can be claimed to be "viewed generally as a male domain". And once you start accounting for ethnicity and social background I think you would find it incredibly difficult to come up with something that had no possibly offensive cultural baggage. Actually, maybe the challenge could be to design a challenge that was neutral. P.S. Considering soccer's…

We may very well find it very difficult to come up with something that has no possibly offensive cultural baggage. Do you think soccer was one where someone made even an attempt to mitigate that baggage?

Possibly, as soccer isn't exactly a premier sport in the US. If it was American football, baseball, or basketball (with which the average American male is more familiar) I think the authors point would be stronger.

I could make an argument that using a sport which has massive popularity outside Western European culture is a sign that the interviewer was thinking about diversity.

Sports are good candidates for these challenges as they have reasonably complex rule, so it isn't necessarily that the interviewer was just selecting something they liked.

Re: On Interviewing as a Junior Dev

#95

Post by clockworkweeble » Wed, Dec 10, 2014, 1:32 PM UTC

NLips wrote: post #63

rurounijones wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, previous sentence. > If your code challenge involves a typically male oriented theme, such as sports, consider changing it to something else. Why not use something more neutral? I did a code challenge that involved ranking soccer teams, and while going over the code a developer at the company asked me if I needed the rules of the game explained to me. Statement of fact, no "feminism" on display, no hint of anger…

Combine the following two sections: 1) "...while going over the code a developer at the company asked me if I needed the rules of the game explained to me." 2) "...asking a female candidate if they understand a basic sports rule...comes across as belittling and sexist." It seems pretty explicit that she found it sexist that they asked if she needed the rules explained. If she finds them sexist for asking her the ques…

"She must think they only asked because she's female"

Alternatively, she cannot know whether they only asked because she's female. She has to give them the benefit of the doubt, but it leaves her wondering, because it's something someone with sexist attitudes would be more likely to say. If they had chosen a more neutral topic, or presented the material in a way where it was clear that male and female candidates were treated identically, she wouldn't have been placed in that position. Her point is about how it comes across, not about how it was intended. It's more, "here's how you can avoid accidentally making candidates unsure whether you are sexist" and not "this was a sexist thing that happened".