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Who Y Combinator Companies Want

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Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#361

Post by s73v3r »

Swizec wrote: post #242
ammon wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EDIT: I thought that sillysaurus3 was talking about a work trial period (days or a week), but it seems they are talking about asking question during that interview that are similar to actual work. I retract me objection :) If only it were that easy. I am not at all opposed to work-trial tests. They are almost certainly more accurate. But a high percentage of programmer will never apply to a company that requires one.…

If you're getting paid for a week of work, you can take a week of unpaid vacation from your day job. No vacation days burned. No money lost.

You're assuming the rates are the same, and that your current company will allow you to take an unpaid week off.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#362

Post by oskarth »

jcadam wrote: post #196
ryandrake wrote: post #8

> "We’ve seen that most engineers only have the stomach for a limited number of interviews. Investing time in the wrong companies carries a high opportunity cost." I suspect in addition to not having the "stomach" for an unlimited number of interviews, they don't have the vacation days to burn for them. Let's say you are working already and have 10 days a year vacation (pretty standard). With these ridiculous all-day…

I'll use myself as an example -- I work as a programmer in the Defense industry. I've wanted out for years. So every so often I start sending out resumes and going on interviews. After wasting about half of my vacation time on (multiple) rounds of interviews with each prospective employer (that ultimately lead nowhere -- most often, a potential employer who inexplicably stops communicating with me), I give up. Then,…

Have you considered saving up enough money to quit and give yourself 3-6 months to find a job you enjoy?

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#363

Post by s73v3r »

Retra wrote: post #322
thaumasiotes wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're not longshoremen. Virtually nobody has a contract saying "just show up when and if you feel like it, and we'll pay you for that".

I don't think Swizec was implying that this time couldn't be coordinated in advance with your employer.

I think the point is that most employers would say "no."

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#364

Post by s73v3r »

ryandrake wrote: post #161
vonmoltke wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem you're working on can be fake I'm assuming if it was a fake problem, it wouldn't be something the other company could actually use.

It's not about what they could use. It's about what they own and where it's going. If your employment agreement states that any code you write belongs to your employer and that you're not allowed to share company code with others, then a work-sample test essentially asks candidates to violate their current employment agreement.

I would say that if the new company is not in the same section of the industry, than enforcing that agreement is entirely unreasonable.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#365

Post by mavelikara »

iopq wrote: post #355

> He solved hard algorithm problems like they were nothing That's mostly practice. When I did webdev I was really shitty at algorithms because there were no algorithms in my daily work. When I did some Baduk AI programming I started being much better at algorithms since I was implementing some custom algorithms myself. If you are interviewing someone for a web dev position, it's kind of ridiculous to screen people by…

You highlight a very important point. Doing well on algorithms in interviews only needs some dedicated practice. It is NOT a signal for higher intellect as many people misunderstand it to be.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#366

Post by thaumasiotes »

dominotw wrote: post #351
thaumasiotes wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Triplebyte does notionally allow you to apply (to Triplebyte) via a trial project. But it's in addition to the interview(s), and the feeling they get from you during the interview trumps the project. They gave me the following feedback: > This was a tough decision and one that we were on the fence about. We really appreciate you taking the time to work on the take home project. We're aware this requires a substantial…

It always surprises to me to no end when I see people get any real feedback from the interview. Do these employers not care about getting sued, like everyone els.

That feedback may not be hopelessly vague, but it's also totally unactionable. They wouldn't let me reinterview, and interviewing was the only problem they identified.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#367

Post by vorg »

throwaway456789 wrote: post #111
ScottBurson wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first time I read your post I missed the parenthetical in the first paragraph, and was inclined to agree with you. Then I looked again and saw "(late twenties)", and had to laugh. On the one hand, you're right, you can't learn everything. On the other, to be able to realistically claim that you can pick up new languages quickly, you should already know three or four different kinds of languages. If all you know i…

I am pigeonholed. Sure I know other languages: Shell Scripting, Perl, HTML/CSS/JS, Groovy, SQL, C#, etc, but 80 percent of the code I write is in Java. I'm at a Java shop and have golden handcuffs. It's Java or bust for me.

> I just happen to write the majority of my code in Java. If tomorrow we decided to use a new language, I could pick it up in a few days...

The languages in your list are:

* declarative: HTML, CSS, Groovy (for Gradle), SQL

* scripting: Shell, Perl, JS, Groovy (for testing)

* Java-clones: C#

I found it difficult to pick up Clojure and Haskell "in a few days" when all I had was experience in those types of languages. In fact, mastering each of those languages requires a change in thinking that can only occur over a much longer time.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#368

Post by ethbro »

swalsh wrote: post #330
jcadam wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll use myself as an example -- I work as a programmer in the Defense industry. I've wanted out for years. So every so often I start sending out resumes and going on interviews. After wasting about half of my vacation time on (multiple) rounds of interviews with each prospective employer (that ultimately lead nowhere -- most often, a potential employer who inexplicably stops communicating with me), I give up. Then,…

"whiteboard hazing" there are two types of whiteboarding questions. The kind that's a perfectly reasonable thing to ask (i've had people ask me to develop some simple system... which I think is reasonable, because i'll do that as part of the job) but then there's the solve x algorithm questions. Which ultimately is an exercise in memorization. At this point I've just accepted that i'll have to do that.

I think OP was perhaps referencing the human interaction that happens after you put something on a whiteboard with their "hazing" comment.

We've all been in that interview with the one jerk engineer who seems to want to hear themselves talk more than honestly walk through a problem. (Hint: it tends to be the person who offers "Well, that's not the way I would have done it" as a negative and without further explanation)

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#369

Post by aaalll »

gotchange wrote: post #350
MCRed wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IF they have you write code, think twice about taking the job. That's an indicator of a junior engineer conducting an interview in a company that didn't care enough to work out a good process. Seriously. I've been working for startups and starting companies for 26 years, and for half that time I've been building teams. I stopped asking people to code a long time ago. If they can't code it will be obvious by their ans…

Coding as part of the interview process is a reasonable request to ask from the applicant and I'm having hard time to understand your objection to this step.

Not really you don't get to see surgeons operate when applying to a position. There is a lack of trust why this whiteboard stuff happens to be honest I pass about 60% of the white interviews that i did.

Re: Who Y Combinator Companies Want

#370

Post by buckbova »

throwaway456789 wrote: post #357
coffeemug wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However, I'm a really good programmer. How do you know?

Plead see previous comment about my compensation. I don't think a company would pay someone that much unless they were really good.

I don't expect any job actually programming pays more than that, even if you are literally doing 1 1/2 jobs (60 hrs/wk). Only way to get that kind of pay and work for someone else is as an executive and a higher up VP/CTO/CIO etc.

Keep that job and don't spend all that money in one place. You might be one of those folks who can retire while they are (relatively) young.

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