191–200 of 238 posts
They use the same format for Accounts Payable Clerk as they do for Director of Devops. Slightly lazy, sure, but not really blog post worthy. If you're an experienced hire just put do not recall and move on with your life.
Incredibly lazy, and likely not useful
> 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.
You're hearing noble assumptions of risk taking and talent, sticking the neck out and lording over the sheep, but all I'm seeing is narcissism and overconfidence.
Shopify has an initial round with recruiter called "Life Story interview". You basically start from the beginning, talking about your high school experience, what did you like there and what did you study, your childhood hobbies ...
This seems strange for a middle aged candidate, what are they looking for here? Communication skills? I wanna believe most people would pass unless they said their childhood hobbies are torturing animals and setting fires. But I have no idea.
Culture fit, probably looking for a few keywords or experiences that match a profile.
Seems fraught with peril from a legal perspective, IMO. Lotta hooks or opportunities for discrimination.
OTOH I could also see the appeal, e.g. you're not the ideal-on-paper candidate, but you did a bunch of X and Y, had experience w/ Z, tell me about the other stuff, sell me a little. I'm not an MIT hyper-literati type but give me the chance to show why that doesn't matter, etc. etc.
> 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.
I've never seen this outside investment banking or management consulting, and even then, it was a very local thing (Scandinavia) edit: Because they wanted "full picture" of the candidates. Meaning that they don't put too much weight on your HS grades, but that having been a consistent performer throughout your life, is a positive trait for them.
> Solid 83% man my whole life, and I'll give you a solid 83 for all 4 years I'm there!
Related: This was the first step in the interview process at Canonical – I withdrew (2022) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30735678
The great thing about being FI is the lack of worry over this garbage. I would have truthfully answered that I was a terrible student, that I could only focus on subjects that truly interested me, and that one of those subjects fortunately happened to be coding. They want to toss my resume for my struggles 20 years ago? So be it. It's as good of a filter for me not wanting to work for them as it is vice versa.
I've hired lots of software engineers in my life, and even for ones right out of university, I'm not sure I could recall what university they attended.
Their hiring process is, ah, "interesting", but without getting into that let me note: 1) There are more questions about high school if you make it into the interviews, so they do take it seriously. 2) There is research indicating that "who or how we are" is pretty well determined in our formative years, with the high school years being a prime driver, so there is at least some rational motivation to ask about it. Ex…
In high school I was stealing to order so I could afford rent, oh, and heroin. I've not subsequently done either of those things for at least 25 years and counting, so I'm not overly sure on point #2.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You seem to be making a lot of assumptions about Canonical's motives and reasoning. Perhaps the question about language indicates that they're only looking for people who wouldn't have closed their tabs.
I would be able to give "impressive" answers to those questions, yet I'd still close the tab. Canonical is shooting themselves in the foot. The next worst thing they could have asked was my Myers-Briggs personality category.
I want to complain that they don't have a "won the state championship" answer for the math question. The allowed responses don't even capture my full, 30 years ago high school glory.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They really do want the people that will crawl through broken glass for them. The whole tech industry is insane. Can we please go back to: I give you work, you give me money. And if you want passion then I want equity .
There are 8 billion people on the planet and remote work & automation is changing the game. If you won't crawl through broken glass, cool, there are 5000+ people in India who might, and a couple hundred jr IT support types a lot closer who are being replaced with an IAM system. Two World Wars killed the main working segments of entire generations -- young men -- and allowed the West to take the lead for a while. The…