How To Identify A Lame Programming Job
codypowell.com
How To Identify A Lame Programming Job
1–10 of 39 posts
Re: How To Identify A Lame Programming Job
#2Basically a list of this guys personal preferences.. lame.
Here is a foolproof method of filtering out bad programmer jobs:
If they ever use the words 'rockstar', 'ninja', or anything similar, run very far away. If throughout the interview process they focus purely on pumping up your ego run very far away. If all they can talk about is how they have Rockband and Foosball, you got it, run very far away.
Great programming jobs are those in which you are solving interesting problems surrounded by interesting people. If they have that they don't need 'ninjas' and 'rockstars'. They don't need to talk about foosball (I'm not saying Foosball is bad, it just shouldn't be the focus of your work). Instead, they'll talk about interesting problems.
Re: How To Identify A Lame Programming Job
#35. Will I be maintaining any ancient system, and what's it written in?
If you don't want to inherit legacy software, go work in a startup and enjoy creating everything from scratch. Legacy software at least leaves you a work culture and a process, not to mention a frame of reference. In a startup, not only there is no much in-house software, there isn't even a division of labor.
Re: How To Identify A Lame Programming Job
#4I like the "what source control" question from the comments. They should use one and it shouldn't be sourcesafe.
Many of these are pretty reasonable. Dunno that travel is that bad a problem...
Re: How To Identify A Lame Programming Job
#55. Will I be maintaining any ancient system, and what's it written in? If you don't want to inherit legacy software, go work in a startup and enjoy creating everything from scratch. Legacy software at least leaves you a work culture and a process, not to mention a frame of reference. In a startup, not only there is no much in-house software, there isn't even a division of labor.
There's legacy software... and then there are coding artifacts from another era. I'm not necessarily saying it's a deal breaker, but if your development tools consist solely of products that have been End of Lifed, you have right to be concerned how the job would affect your career development.
Re: How To Identify A Lame Programming Job
#64. Would I work with a single monitor?
Maybe three separate monitors is better than one, but even better is having one really high quality monitor and learning to use virtual workspaces efficiently. Binding the Super key - number key combinations; now I have 10 monitors.
Re: How To Identify A Lame Programming Job
#7Basically a list of this guys personal preferences.. lame. Here is a foolproof method of filtering out bad programmer jobs: If they ever use the words 'rockstar', 'ninja', or anything similar, run very far away. If throughout the interview process they focus purely on pumping up your ego run very far away. If all they can talk about is how they have Rockband and Foosball, you got it, run very far away. Great programm…
I'm sure there are great places to work where HR drones who want to sound cool bandy about terms like rockstar and ninja. I agree it's annoying, but it doesn't mean anything IMHO.
Re: How To Identify A Lame Programming Job
#85. Will I be maintaining any ancient system, and what's it written in? If you don't want to inherit legacy software, go work in a startup and enjoy creating everything from scratch. Legacy software at least leaves you a work culture and a process, not to mention a frame of reference. In a startup, not only there is no much in-house software, there isn't even a division of labor.
Call me perverse, but I love the archaeological side of dealing with legacy software too. You start off with code that makes no sense at all, and gradually as you brush away soil from the pot shards, a story emerges. Working on porting Diablo to the PS1, there were tiny bits of inline assembler scattered everywhere. Eventually the light dawned: the original programmers had been struggling to understand C's signed/unsigned integer conversions so they fell back to the x86 instructions they were more familiar with.
Re: How To Identify A Lame Programming Job
#9Basically a list of this guys personal preferences.. lame. Here is a foolproof method of filtering out bad programmer jobs: If they ever use the words 'rockstar', 'ninja', or anything similar, run very far away. If throughout the interview process they focus purely on pumping up your ego run very far away. If all they can talk about is how they have Rockband and Foosball, you got it, run very far away. Great programm…
I'm sure there are great places to work where HR drones who want to sound cool bandy about terms like rockstar and ninja . I agree it's annoying, but it doesn't mean anything IMHO.
It's a strong warning sign. Anything to the effect of "we want rockstar developers" suggests something unsaid-- that they consider most of the applicants that they get to be of low-quality, which says more about them and the mismatch between what they think they offer and how the market perceives them than it does about the applicants.
It's like writing "please be cute" in an online dating profile.
Re: How To Identify A Lame Programming Job
#10I like the "what source control" question from the comments. They should use one and it shouldn't be sourcesafe. Many of these are pretty reasonable. Dunno that travel is that bad a problem...
Why would a developer be traveling frequently?
Also, business travel sucks, especially if you're entry-level.