Facebook recruiting and Unix systems • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems

#121

Post by LeoNatan25 » Thu, Sep 07, 2017, 2:24 AM UTC

damnfine wrote: post #78

tacotaco98 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You sound like my racist grandfather: "Those that favor Emacs, Vim etc tend to be rather different than those that use Visual Studio, etc." Yeah? How are they different? O Great Arbiter of Skills, how did you come to this conclusion?

Honestly, while I would not stake a hiring decision on the distinction, I see quite a difference in the two. Comparing a coders chosen habits to racism is a huge stretch.

That’s not what was compared. The comparison to racism was to the poster who said EMACS users are “different” from VS users.

Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems

#122

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 07, 2017, 2:24 AM UTC

adamnemecek wrote: post #101

tw1010 wrote: post #91

In situations like these you really aught to ask yourself what your end-goal with being elitist like that is really trying to serve. In engineering situations usually the purpose is some form of disguised signaling. This is the purpose of most sentences that start with "technically". But when you're talking to a recruiter that kind of move is unlikely to be effective. It's unlikely to affect your application positive…

He's not interested and wants some lulz.

[deleted]

Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems

#123

Post by williamscales » Thu, Sep 07, 2017, 2:26 AM UTC

The right answer is to say

"Oh, you're exactly right. I've updated my resume accordingly.

...//Unix //Linux"

and have that be the end of it. What is the point of arguing here but to prove some kind of imagined superiority?

Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems

#124

Post by Chloro » Thu, Sep 07, 2017, 2:26 AM UTC

At least this recruiter wont be as dumb moving forward. It's important as a recruiter to understand what the hell it is you are looking for in a candidate. I personally thought the applicant handled this perfectly.

Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems

#125

Post by gargarplex » Thu, Sep 07, 2017, 2:28 AM UTC

foo101 wrote: post #116

gargarplex wrote: post #20

Facepalm. Somebody show this to Zuck. Change needs to begin at the top. EDIT: Is it possible that they actually want people with actual UNIX experience? They are recruiting students. Maybe they want someone who has used an actual UNIX system on some kind of emulator for some sort of secret retro initiative. EDIT2: http://www.jbox.dk/sanos/pdp11.htm

Did you read the email exchange carefully? The Facebook recruiter did not ask for experience with the AT&T Unix systsem of 1970s. The candidate perhaps assumed that incorrectly. Facebook asked for actual Linux and Unix experience which indeed many people who have worked on GNU/Linux systems like CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, etc. and Unix systems like AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, etc. have.

Truth be told, I didn't remember there is a distinction between Unix and UNIX. I also didn't know/remember that Solaris and AIX are proper Unixes. These are probably things that a systems developer should know. Given this distinction, I am starting to empathize with the recruiter – when an unqualified candidate is trying to sell me / pedant me on something they're actually unqualified to talk about.

Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems

#126

Post by coverband » Thu, Sep 07, 2017, 2:28 AM UTC

If true, this is truly hilarious. (I'm sure the young man will do fine with another employer.)

Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems

#127

Post by jnagro » Thu, Sep 07, 2017, 2:29 AM UTC

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #119

tw1010 wrote: post #91

In situations like these you really aught to ask yourself what your end-goal with being elitist like that is really trying to serve. In engineering situations usually the purpose is some form of disguised signaling. This is the purpose of most sentences that start with "technically". But when you're talking to a recruiter that kind of move is unlikely to be effective. It's unlikely to affect your application positive…

I disagree. It looks like the recruiter is clueless or maybe even trolling, and applicant was going out of their way to be helpful. They could have just updated their resume, and allowed the recruiter to remain ignorant, but imo that would have been very rude.

totally agree with dec0dedab0de. and recruiters should pay attention - think of how many smart candidates see this nonsense, consider it a reflection of the organization, and opt-out of the recruiting process.

Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems

#128

Post by aspyrx » Thu, Sep 07, 2017, 2:30 AM UTC

Hey folks, I'm the student writing the emails in the post here. Thanks to everyone for their criticisms. While I was initially kind of shocked by the recruiter's response, I've had a lot of time to think about it today and have realized that I was being pretty damn condescending and spoke out of line without regards to the context. It's been a hard lesson learned. I honestly regret the whole exchange, and posting it online was inappropriate as well. I briefly debated deleting the image, but decided to leave it up for sake of posterity and accountability.

Also, just to be clear, I do not (and never did) hold any hard feelings towards the recruiter; in fact, it was very kind of them to point out why I was not qualified in the first place. This has been probably the most reflective of how I let my ego get the best of me at times, and I hope it might serve as a warning to those who might be tempted to do the same "devsplaining" in similar situations.

Please let me know if you have any other criticisms beyond the ones already voiced in this thread. I'm reading through the comments here as I can, and it's been a lot of good advice. Thanks again.

Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems

#129

Post by protomyth » Thu, Sep 07, 2017, 2:30 AM UTC

cakedoggie wrote: post #98

dave_sullivan wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'll have a range of people from executives, to clients to co-workers in other departments who don't know what UNIX, APIs and POSIX are. Yes, but if a recruiter is attempting to convince the smartest people at top universities to come be an intern at their company, they should know the difference (or practical lack thereof) between linux and unix. Or at least they should be smart enough to not triple-down on that…

> they should know the difference (or practical lack thereof) between linux and unix. I hate this attitude. How can a recruiter know all the intricacies for the roles he is hiring, he would need to be an expert. He has to know everything he they have to learn a whole pile of new terms.

That’s why you pay a technical recruiter. It’s their job to know all the terms and their relationships. They don’t need to know how to program them, just what fits what. Think the difference between a athlete and a sports reporter. The best sports reporters know the intricacies but no one expects them to play the sports they cover. Generic recruiters are not very useful.

Re: Facebook recruiting and Unix systems

#130

Post by foo101 » Thu, Sep 07, 2017, 2:31 AM UTC

Here are the facts about Unix.

* The name "UNIX" or "Unix" is trademarked.

* AIX, Solaris and HP-UX are certified Unix systems. These are bonafide Unix systems and there indeed are software developers today who work with these Unix systems.[2]

* The set of Unix-like systems is a superset of the set of Unix systems. The set of Unix-like systems include systems like Linux, FreeBSD, etc. which the set of certified Unix systems do not.

[1]: https://archive.org/details/bstj57-6-1905

[2]: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/linux-vs-unix-crucial-differenc...