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I gave the AI arms and legs then it rejected me

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Re: I gave the AI arms and legs then it rejected me

#101

Post by xxs »

krzkaczor wrote: post #67
siva7 wrote: post #47

There is some dirty secret i learned in my time as a eng. manager: Working in open source / Being the maintainer of a popular library / Blogging about software: All this things won't give you necessarily a competitive edge but can work against you. It's counterintuitive but sometimes teams are looking for a more low-profile hire.

How so? Care to elaborate? I get that bloggers/educators can sometimes be not the best fit for IC roles but doing open source seems like a huge advantage.

> huge advantage.

It dependents on the size of the organization a lot. However in general it's likely that the new hire is the most competent of them all, which would be an immediate risk for some of the managers (e.g being displaced)

Re: I gave the AI arms and legs then it rejected me

#102

Post by IncreasePosts »

delroth wrote: post #10
physicsguy wrote: post #2

Reminds me of the guy who created Homebrew being rejected by Google for failing some silly Leetcode puzzle.

Which is not something that happened, even according to Max Howell himself: https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-logic-behind-Google-rejectin... > I feel bad about my tweet, I don’t feel it was fair, and it fed the current era of outragism-driven-reading that is the modern Internet, and thus went viral, and for that I am truly sorry.

Building popular software doesn't mean you're a good programmer, especially since at that point Google was looking heavily at CS concepts and he admittedly wasn't good at that.

It's also possible he would have been hired if he applied for L-1. A lot of people get an ego check applying to Google where they're a senior staff engineer or a CTO at a small company and get an L5 offer.

Re: I gave the AI arms and legs then it rejected me

#103

Post by xxs »

fgbarben wrote: post #78
siva7 wrote: post #47

There is some dirty secret i learned in my time as a eng. manager: Working in open source / Being the maintainer of a popular library / Blogging about software: All this things won't give you necessarily a competitive edge but can work against you. It's counterintuitive but sometimes teams are looking for a more low-profile hire.

This is cope and propaganda to discourage people from developing their own brand. Better for the corporation if the workers have no support structure or reputation that might lead them to quit

it doesn't mean one should not do it - but it's not an immediate benefit

Re: I gave the AI arms and legs then it rejected me

#104

Post by practice9 »

captain_coffee wrote: post #53

Unfortunately, this seems on par with recruitment practices in the summer of 2025. I can almost guarantee that they didn't even read that application / cover letter and auto-magically rejected it. "the team doesn't have the capacity to review additional applications" Zero effort. They probably didn't even realize the relevance of that specific application for that role. Unbelievable, I swear!

They should have used Claude Code for reviews

Re: I gave the AI arms and legs then it rejected me

#105

Post by [deleted] »

kunley wrote: post #59
wiseowise wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Homebrew is “just” a package manager, not the core of part of Google. They could rip it out overnight and won’t even notice it. And Google gave him a fair shot. This guy got rejected by some automated system without even interview.

So, was he rejected by an automated system or did he go thru seven interviews, as other commenters say?

[deleted]

Re: I gave the AI arms and legs then it rejected me

#106

Post by tacker2000 »

physicsguy wrote: post #2

Reminds me of the guy who created Homebrew being rejected by Google for failing some silly Leetcode puzzle.

This guy is so full of himself, no wonder he didnt get hired. Just read the homebrew github issues / forum and you will see what i mean…

Re: I gave the AI arms and legs then it rejected me

#107

Post by oniony »

krzkaczor wrote: post #67
siva7 wrote: post #47

There is some dirty secret i learned in my time as a eng. manager: Working in open source / Being the maintainer of a popular library / Blogging about software: All this things won't give you necessarily a competitive edge but can work against you. It's counterintuitive but sometimes teams are looking for a more low-profile hire.

How so? Care to elaborate? I get that bloggers/educators can sometimes be not the best fit for IC roles but doing open source seems like a huge advantage.

Some companies want subservient, homogenous employees that come in, do work, and can be let go if they do not perform. That's a simple equation.

If you get in somebody who is a star, however minor, that changes the equation, changes the dynamic. Now that person can have more confidence, can have more sway in the decision making. If the company wants to let them go, then they might post a message to their followers, riling them up, creating bad PR for the company. It's no longer a simple equation.

So it all comes down to the insecurities of the company.

Re: I gave the AI arms and legs then it rejected me

#108

Post by SJC_Hacker »

UK-AL wrote: post #72

Being able to get hired at a company is often unrelated to being able to generate viable products. If you want to get hired don't focus on skills to build useful things. Focus on psychology and charisma.

Yeah, no. You have to pass tech interviews and generally know your shit

Re: I gave the AI arms and legs then it rejected me

#109

Post by null_deref »

siva7 wrote: post #47

There is some dirty secret i learned in my time as a eng. manager: Working in open source / Being the maintainer of a popular library / Blogging about software: All this things won't give you necessarily a competitive edge but can work against you. It's counterintuitive but sometimes teams are looking for a more low-profile hire.

I agree with the other comments on this thread, but I have a question of my own, why not work as consultant at that point and not as team member?

Re: I gave the AI arms and legs then it rejected me

#110

Post by marcus_holmes »

zero_shift wrote: post #70
krzkaczor wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? Care to elaborate? I get that bloggers/educators can sometimes be not the best fit for IC roles but doing open source seems like a huge advantage.

It might be similar to how employers dislike hiring entrepreneurs. People who already have a career bigger than their job

This is kinda fair, though. People who have run their own business make for really, really, awkward employees. It takes a really skilled manager to deal with them properly
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