IRC as a Hiring Filter • Hacker News Board

Re: IRC as a Hiring Filter

#21

Post by mariusz79 » Fri, Feb 13, 2015, 6:14 PM UTC

Iftheshoefits wrote: post #18

mariusz79 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the candidates will be much better :)

Please provide evidence for your assertion.

If your filter is based on the irc, and the number of people there is declining, basically it means that only the most hard-core users are remaining. And usually that means that they know how to use it.

Re: IRC as a Hiring Filter

#22

Post by seomis » Fri, Feb 13, 2015, 6:15 PM UTC

What do college-age stoners sound like on IRC? Do they type "whoa" and "dude" a lot or something?

Re: IRC as a Hiring Filter

#23

Post by mariusz79 » Fri, Feb 13, 2015, 6:16 PM UTC

SCHiM wrote: post #20

I'm very technical, I've written hacks for online games, boot loaders, my own micro-operating system, accounting software, http servers. I've written patches for snort (the ids, not public) and a ton of other stuff. Yet I'm not on irc, I'd be a hire you'd miss if you used irc as a screening filter. > "and I have actually decided not to work with specific developers before in a professional setting because they litera…

" very technical person has never seen it before and has trouble with the irc commands "

technical person having trouble with the irc commands - isn't that oxymoron?

Re: IRC as a Hiring Filter

#24

Post by saraid216 » Fri, Feb 13, 2015, 6:17 PM UTC

kristoffer wrote: post #9

Pretty ridiculous. Aren't we having problems finding candidates? Why care if they use the most leet irc client or write irc bots? Recruiting people you find on irc in coding related channels I'm all for that. But it doesn't scale obviously.

Nah, that's just what we say to all those "diversity hand-wringers".

Re: IRC as a Hiring Filter

#25

Post by fintler » Fri, Feb 13, 2015, 6:21 PM UTC

Thriptic wrote: post #12

Is IRC still a widely used protocol? I used it for years about 10-15 years ago, but I rarely hear of people around me using it currently.

I work for a company in Alexa's top 20. We use IRC for almost everything.

Something I find really useful is Jira integration with IRC. When something goes wrong, an IRC channel will open up with the name of the Jira ticket -- then status bots and logging bots will join automatically. It really helps to organize everything, especially when multiple problems are happening concurrently. It's also great for building post-mortem timelines after things are resolved.

In addition, most teams also have their own channel, so you can generally join it and ask questions for a quick response.

Re: IRC as a Hiring Filter

#26

Post by mariusz79 » Fri, Feb 13, 2015, 6:22 PM UTC

aiiane wrote: post #11

Another proposed hiring metric that is likely to favor the stereotypical coding-since-childhood male developer. IRC channels are often just as bad if not worse than mailing lists when it comes to providing a welcoming space for minorities.

I have not seen anything in the RFC 1459,2810, 2811, 2812, 2813 preventing females from using irc protocol. And obviously you never used IRC if you think that it's somehow not a welcoming space to minorities.

Re: IRC as a Hiring Filter

#27

Post by munificent » Fri, Feb 13, 2015, 6:22 PM UTC

mariusz79 wrote: post #21

Iftheshoefits wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please provide evidence for your assertion.

If your filter is based on the irc, and the number of people there is declining, basically it means that only the most hard-core users are remaining. And usually that means that they know how to use it.

Sure, if you're hiring people to be skilled IRC users.

But, I think what you're trying to hire are skilled software developers. It's apparently been left as an exercise for the reader to demonstrate any correlation between these two skills.

Re: IRC as a Hiring Filter

#28

Post by GeneralMayhem » Fri, Feb 13, 2015, 6:22 PM UTC

mariusz79 wrote: post #23

SCHiM wrote: post #20

I'm very technical, I've written hacks for online games, boot loaders, my own micro-operating system, accounting software, http servers. I've written patches for snort (the ids, not public) and a ton of other stuff. Yet I'm not on irc, I'd be a hire you'd miss if you used irc as a screening filter. > "and I have actually decided not to work with specific developers before in a professional setting because they litera…

" very technical person has never seen it before and has trouble with the irc commands " technical person having trouble with the irc commands - isn't that oxymoron?

No. If you don't use it regularly, there's a lot of commands to learn. It's not hard per se, but I wouldn't want to be judged on it within a few minutes of being introduced to it.

Re: IRC as a Hiring Filter

#29

Post by bicknergseng » Fri, Feb 13, 2015, 6:23 PM UTC

On the other hand, I'd probably not want to work for someone who thought IRC was the best solution for team communication in 2015, and certainly not for someone who thought it was better to bang your collective head against all of IRC's problems instead of paying a small amount for Slack or Flowdock or another solution that works well out of the box.

IRC is still useful and relevant for a lot of OSS, but it's definitely not something relevant for screening people.

Re: IRC as a Hiring Filter

#30

Post by edcastro » Fri, Feb 13, 2015, 6:23 PM UTC

I once did an interview on IRC for Opera and it was one of the most positively interesting interviews I did to date. There was a couple of people on the channel and the whole thing was very dynamic and organized. I loved it. Wish more companies did the same.