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WTF with high school questions?

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Re: WTF with high school questions?

#171

Post by tomxor »

legitster wrote: post #93

> I got kicked out of AP English for insubordination in high school. The difference between my high-school performance in English classes and professional accomplishments as a writer is vast Ironically, if I was a hiring manager I would much rather care about your history of insubordination than your self-ascribed writing skills.

> I would much rather care about your history of insubordination than your self-ascribed writing skills.

A valid strategy if servility is a trait matching the role.

But I doubt it would be present in those capable of producing insightful or thoughtful writing. Unique value usually emerges from some degree of risk taking, including the risks involved in hiring talented people over reliable sheep where needed.

Re: WTF with high school questions?

#172

Post by shubb »

itake wrote: post #160
dcminter wrote: post #28

I'm 50. High School was a long time ago. I love Ubuntu, and I love Java (they were looking for people for Enterprise Java tooling), but the inane high school questions were, for me, a strong indicator that "oldies need not apply." Mr Shuttleworth has said - here - that he's confident this set of questions is picking the right people, so I'm taking him at his word and not wasting my time or theirs.

That is an interesting point about this (potentially) being age discrimination.

I worry about grade inflation as well - a 1990s 1st means you are in the top 10% of students but a 2023 1st just means you are in the top 40%. Very different hurdles to clear.

Re: WTF with high school questions?

#173

Post by kqr2 »

spyremeown wrote: post #101

I interviewed for Canonical and they pull even worse bullshit later on the process. They asked me to write a x00 page essay on something-something... it's borderline ridiculous how their HR works.

Depending on the position Amazon also asks you to write an essay.

Re: WTF with high school questions?

#174

Post by renewiltord »

yamazakiwi wrote: post #97
vdqtp3 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know any awesome engineers who sucked at school This makes me think you don't know many awesome engineers.

Or any for that matter...the majority of schools educate for the lowest common denominator. Most talented individuals I know did supplemental education on their own outside of school systems.

Right, it's exactly as you say. They educate to and test to the simplest form. Failing at even that means you fail at something the lowest common denominator, as you put it, passes at. That's a pretty strong indicator of something.

Re: WTF with high school questions?

#175

Post by yamazakiwi »

renewiltord wrote: post #174
yamazakiwi wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or any for that matter...the majority of schools educate for the lowest common denominator. Most talented individuals I know did supplemental education on their own outside of school systems.

Right, it's exactly as you say. They educate to and test to the simplest form. Failing at even that means you fail at something the lowest common denominator, as you put it, passes at. That's a pretty strong indicator of something.

There are those who refuse to play the game because they don't see a poor schooling experience as useful and you're saying those people are the same as those who can't do basic math. Or at least you're not distinguishing the difference.

Re: WTF with high school questions?

#176

Post by duped »

93po wrote: post #147
sidewndr46 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wouldn't be very difficult for me to get my high school transcript if I wanted to. But hypothesize that someone in their 30s now grew up in a country like South Africa, Zaire, or one of the Balkans. How exactly do you even prove you attended High School at this point? Much less get a transcript?

I've sometimes wondered how easy it'd be to lie about where I went to university, even. In my 15 year career I've literally never had anyone ask for any proof of my degree. I did some research just now though and there is in fact a National Student Clearinghouse that background check companies use to verify school info, so maybe it's been happening as part of background checks?

It's actually really easy to verify someone attended/graduated. It's easier than an employment reference since there's usually someone to answer the phones in the Registrars' offices and this is exactly why they exist.

What's a bit trickier is verifying the University exists. There are fake colleges where you pay for a bogus degree and subscribe to their bogus registrar service for a period of time so when employers conduct a degree check they answer the phone and lie for you.

Re: WTF with high school questions?

#177

Post by idontpost »

legitster wrote: post #93

> I got kicked out of AP English for insubordination in high school. The difference between my high-school performance in English classes and professional accomplishments as a writer is vast Ironically, if I was a hiring manager I would much rather care about your history of insubordination than your self-ascribed writing skills.

[dead]

Re: WTF with high school questions?

#178

Post by modriano »

JonChesterfield wrote: post #118
modriano wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Canonical makes infrastructure that I (and a significant slice of the world economy) depend on. If they want to significantly bias their application pool to people who are willing to tolerate that question, then I'm a bit concerned that I've invested years and years building on a decaying foundation, and now I have to investigate.

Canonical's model is to copy Debian testing, change the branding and apply some set of patches to it, then ship it. Every six months or so they pick up the new Debian testing and repeat. Debian is solid. Ubuntu's layer on top is a bit ymmv.

Question: Would I regret switching from Ubuntu 22.04 LTS to Debian Bullseye 11.X (and would I have to use Debian 10 to use an LTS version [0])? How many creature comforts does Ubuntu add onto the Debian base? Just based on the vibe I get from debian.org, I feel like my life would involve a lot more yak shaving (which I don't necessarily mind if it teaches me something that will negate future yak shaves).

Context: In 2019 I built a desktop (my personal workstation) and it was my first machine without a windows or Mac OS partition. That machine is still my personal daily driver (outside of work). Using it for ML/MLOps/misc engineering projects has taught me a ton about parts of how Linux works and is organized.

[0] https://wiki.debian.org/LTS

Re: WTF with high school questions?

#179

Post by czx4f4bd »

tlogan wrote: post #166
czx4f4bd wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the United States, this is absolutely not true. > The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) forbids age discrimination against people who are age 40 or older. It does not protect workers under the age of 40, although some states have laws that protect younger workers from age discrimination. It is not illegal for an employer or other covered entity to favor an older worker over a younger one, even if both wo…

So this might be a good case for some lawyer: this question and email follow up definitely make unreasonable barrier for somebody who finished high school 40+ years ago.

Yeah, it seems pretty discriminatory. As someone with ADHD that was undiagnosed and untreated until after finishing college, I suspect there's also a reasonable case that it's illegal discrimination against people with disabilities.

Re: WTF with high school questions?

#180

Post by renewiltord »

yamazakiwi wrote: post #175
renewiltord wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, it's exactly as you say. They educate to and test to the simplest form. Failing at even that means you fail at something the lowest common denominator, as you put it, passes at. That's a pretty strong indicator of something.

There are those who refuse to play the game because they don't see a poor schooling experience as useful and you're saying those people are the same as those who can't do basic math. Or at least you're not distinguishing the difference.

Yes, that is correct. I don't believe there is utility in attempting to distinguish that.
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