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What If Cars Were Rented Like We Hire Programmers?

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Re: What If Cars Were Rented Like We Hire Programmers?

#131

Post by dllthomas »

falcolas wrote: post #100
acchow wrote: post #77

What's with this "only Subaru" analogy? What I've found is more along these lines: "Are you sure I'm qualified? I don't feel like I'd be very useful. I've never done Java, only C++ and JS and lisp" "No, you'll be perfect. We don't hire people for specific languages"

I think you're lucky. Of course, my experience is with Python, and trying to get hired by a Ruby shop (no matter my experience outside of work with Ruby or any other language, or my experience with the rest of the stack) is impossible. Perhaps it's a different world the lower down the language abstraction level you look.

I've found a mixed bag, for sure, with extensive C and C++ experience. Of course, recruiters love sending things that don't even make sense - bringing me in as a permanent employee in a language I don't know well is probably fine; I'm smart, I learn well, I won't have bad habits. Bringing me in on a 3 month contract on a language I haven't touched, not so much...

Regarding your Ruby-outside-work experience, is it on publicly visible projects?

Re: What If Cars Were Rented Like We Hire Programmers?

#133

Post by err »

chrisbennet wrote: post #47
venomsnake wrote: post #20

Why no one asks questions that show deep understanding of the work and not technical details that can be googled in a second. Like - can you land Curiosity with off the shelf java and JVM? Why or why not?

"Land it? Yes. Successfully? Not so much..."

Welcome aboard!

Re: What If Cars Were Rented Like We Hire Programmers?

#134

Post by mylittlepony »

tokenadult wrote: post #68

It's very easy to decry company hiring procedures. That happens all the time here on HN, and for a very good reason--most company hiring procedures are not based on research and are demonstrably suboptimal for hiring the best people. We discuss this a lot on Hacker News because many of us have been looking for jobs or looking for people to hire some time in our adult lives. From participants in earlier discussions I…

> EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: If you are hiring for any kind of job in the United States, prefer a work-sample test as your hiring procedure. If you are hiring in most other parts of the world, use a work-sample test in combination with a general mental ability test.

I like how American employers think everyone in the US is sane, smart, and educated, unlike the rest of the world.

Re: What If Cars Were Rented Like We Hire Programmers?

#135

Post by jussij »

lessnonymous wrote: post #76

As a hiring manager, the thing I find most interesting on posts like this (ignoring that the analogy is TERRIBLE) are the comments of people used to being on the other side of the desk. I don't think we (as interviewers) do a good job of explaining why we ask the questions we ask. And I don't think we do a good job of communicating what our job is. Our job is to stop you getting hired. If we get 100 people applying f…

> That you could go away and learn what color the middle wire is is great. But the guy next to you has been fixing wiring in distributor caps for years. And right now, I need people that know what color the middle wire is.

And more often than not there is absolutely no relationship between the color of the middle wire and knowning how to fix the distributor cap.

Re: What If Cars Were Rented Like We Hire Programmers?

#136

Post by Jtsummers »

bentcorner wrote: post #49
arscan wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> In this case, the person renting the car would be "interviewing" the car rental company to determine if their service is worth their money. It goes both ways... the rental car agency interviews the person to make sure she is trustworthy of driving the car. The author is asking you to think about the relationship a little more abstractly than simply who is giving money to whom. Having said, that, I think this is a…

Something like "if interviewing carpenters was like interviewing programmers" would work, with various questions regarding trivia about the Mightyman Bansaw 3000, specific experience using square-faced carbon tipped reverse-threaded screws and comparisons between building red versus white cabinets.

http://www.jasonbock.net/jb/Default.aspx?blog=entry.7c334037...

If Carpenters Were Hired Like Programmers

Re: What If Cars Were Rented Like We Hire Programmers?

#137

Post by rowborg »

mylittlepony wrote: post #134
tokenadult wrote: post #68

It's very easy to decry company hiring procedures. That happens all the time here on HN, and for a very good reason--most company hiring procedures are not based on research and are demonstrably suboptimal for hiring the best people. We discuss this a lot on Hacker News because many of us have been looking for jobs or looking for people to hire some time in our adult lives. From participants in earlier discussions I…

> EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: If you are hiring for any kind of job in the United States, prefer a work-sample test as your hiring procedure. If you are hiring in most other parts of the world, use a work-sample test in combination with a general mental ability test. I like how American employers think everyone in the US is sane, smart, and educated, unlike the rest of the world.

In the above proposed methodology, Americans are exempt from the mental tests because those types of tests have questionable legality in the US, not because Americans do not need to be screened.

Re: What If Cars Were Rented Like We Hire Programmers?

#138

Post by thefreeman »

greendestiny wrote: post #107
codemac wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You post this every time, and I want to decry the astro turfing.. but it's good information, well referenced, and I don't have the background or time to refute anything you've said.

I don't think posting the same information again and again is welcome. The people who might be inspired to debate it simply can't have a discussion about it every time it appears - and it goes beyond wanting to engage with the community and share something and becomes an attempt to manipulate. I'd certainly encourage tokenadult to stop posting it.

there's always a noob like me who hasn't read it yet.

Re: What If Cars Were Rented Like We Hire Programmers?

#139

Post by eric_the_read »

davidw wrote: post #40

"E se me nona gavesse e rode sarìa na carioea", as they say here in the Veneto, which, literally translated, means "if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be be a wheelbarrow".

Along the same line, "If a pig had wings, it'd be a pigeon." I want to say that's from Heinlein, but I'm not positive.

Re: What If Cars Were Rented Like We Hire Programmers?

#140

Post by ChuckMcM »

Ah yes, another person describing their Google interview experience. They do leave a lot of solid candidates out but in their defense, when I was there, being able to survive the non-intuitive interview process was a good indicator you could survive the non-intuitive business dynamics.

If didn't really crush people when they didn't get called back it would make it funny. Sort of like the Monty Python sketch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP0sqRMzkwo

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