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Why Resumes and Code Screenings Are Obsolete with GitHire

githire.com

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Re: Why Resumes and Code Screenings Are Obsolete with GitHire

#21

Post by jrockway »

I don't see public repositories as being a 100% indicator. The information they provide is useful, but I still want to do a whiteboard interview with candidates. There are a few reasons for this. Most of my personal projects are much simpler than what I get paid to do. Many of my repositories contain lots of good code written by other people and it's unfair for me to take credit for their work.

I like the whiteboard interviews because you can observe the end-to-end problem solving. You can see how people behave out of their element. You can see how they approach "an empty page". And you can ask questions that involve more algorithmic insight than "I wrote a Twitter scraper".

Re: Why Resumes and Code Screenings Are Obsolete with GitHire

#22

Post by maxdemarzi »

viraptor wrote: post #18

> Over a million software developers have public repositories on http://github.com , allowing you to see how people use code to solve real problems That assumes they put code on github. And that they publish the code. And that you know anything about their code. Then there are those of us who use bitbucket. There's lots of code which doesn't get published because it's not relevant and if it is, it might be a one off…

I built a similar service that starts with github data and lets you add whatever you want to it. It's more than just language skills you want to hire for.

It uses a nice visualization: http://getvouched.com/visualizations?id=maxdemarzi

Try putting a github username or use the drop down list on the page.

Ultimately you get this profile: http://getvouched.com/users/max/vouches

It uses pagerank + proximity, so if a developer who does have his stuff on github vouches for you, you get all that credit without having to use github.

Re: Why Resumes and Code Screenings Are Obsolete with GitHire

#23

Post by xxqs »

LeafStorm wrote: post #20

One major flaw: it assumes anyone you would want to hire uses Github, as opposed to Bitbucket, Gitorious, Google Code, Launchpad, the numerous other code hosts I missed, or hosting their code on their own server. And if Github becomes "the standard" for hosting software such that everyone looks for code and coders on Github instead of other places, that would be detrimental to the FOSS community as a whole - not only…

don't forget the good old sourceforge and freshmeat.

besides, only about 10%, if not less, of registered github users do actual coding. Most of the users just follow the updates or fork and add patches.

Re: Why Resumes and Code Screenings Are Obsolete with GitHire

#24

Post by fuzzylizard »

As others have stated, how well someone codes is less important than how good a cultural and personal fit they are for the company. I want to know how passionate someone is, how well they do when pair programming, how well they communicate, etc in addition to knowing how well they can code. I can teach someone, who is willing, how to be a great coder, but I cannot teach someone how to fit well into the company culture or with my team.

In addition, I know too many developers who I would hire in a heartbeat that do not have repos on Github and far too many developers that I never want to work with that do have repos.

I also find it curious that on http://githire.com/order, when I refresh the page and see people like 37Signals and Omni show up. Not sure they are looking for new gigs.

Re: Why Resumes and Code Screenings Are Obsolete with GitHire

#25

Post by mnutt »

xxqs wrote: post #23
LeafStorm wrote: post #20

One major flaw: it assumes anyone you would want to hire uses Github, as opposed to Bitbucket, Gitorious, Google Code, Launchpad, the numerous other code hosts I missed, or hosting their code on their own server. And if Github becomes "the standard" for hosting software such that everyone looks for code and coders on Github instead of other places, that would be detrimental to the FOSS community as a whole - not only…

don't forget the good old sourceforge and freshmeat. besides, only about 10%, if not less, of registered github users do actual coding. Most of the users just follow the updates or fork and add patches.

only about 10%, if not less

Is there a number published somewhere?

Re: Why Resumes and Code Screenings Are Obsolete with GitHire

#26

Post by raganwald »

LeafStorm wrote: post #20

One major flaw: it assumes anyone you would want to hire uses Github, as opposed to Bitbucket, Gitorious, Google Code, Launchpad, the numerous other code hosts I missed, or hosting their code on their own server. And if Github becomes "the standard" for hosting software such that everyone looks for code and coders on Github instead of other places, that would be detrimental to the FOSS community as a whole - not only…

Tht is not a major flaw of using the service, that is a major flaw of an employer only using the service.

This also true of every hiring source and strategy you can name. For example, what about hiring friends of employees? You miss out on good people who aren't networked into your team.

A good employer will use a variety of strategies for finding prospective employees. This looks like one good way to get a list of five people that might--with further investigation--be worth interviewing.

Re: Why Resumes and Code Screenings Are Obsolete with GitHire

#27

Post by xxqs »

mnutt wrote: post #25
xxqs wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

don't forget the good old sourceforge and freshmeat. besides, only about 10%, if not less, of registered github users do actual coding. Most of the users just follow the updates or fork and add patches.

only about 10%, if not less Is there a number published somewhere?

no, it's just my own feeling based on browsing and looking at who's following my projects :)

Re: Why Resumes and Code Screenings Are Obsolete with GitHire

#28

Post by jilebedev »

untog wrote: post #2

One thing something like this misses in comparison to resumes - what was the effect of the code they wrote? Sure, I can see that you wrote a kick-ass routine to geocode addresses. What problem was it trying to solve? What benefits did it bring to the end user? Did it have an effect on any measured metrics? This is the kind of stuff people usually put in their resumes. I'm not that interested in the code a developer w…

> what was the effect of the code they wrote?

More importantly, the context surrounding the code. I could read someone's code, and find it absolutely abhorrent for any number of reasons: aesthetics, functionality, efficiency, and so on. But if what's written is what the customer wanted, needed, or what was appropriate for the problem, the environment, the cost, or any other constraint that fits into "code context", then by all means it's justified, and I'm unfit to judge the person simply by what's on paper.

In fact, I think a lot of insight about the potential new-hire can be gleaned from their answer to: "Can you describe a situation where you decided that the best course of action was to write 'ugly' code? What do you consider 'ugly'? What was more important than having 'clean' code?"

Re: Why Resumes and Code Screenings Are Obsolete with GitHire

#30

Post by tikhonj »

flixic wrote: post #14

From my estimated experience: CoffeeScript: 5+ years Ha ha. (the language has been out for 3 years, became known maybe year after release)

Actually, that sounds perfect--for every HR post asking for 5 years experience in a brand new language, you can just forward the these results :)
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