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It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

simonwillison.net

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Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#381

Post by version_five »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #122
okeuro49 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your blog post: > Got another programming job. Got fired for "performance." I think the reason wasn’t good, but I also have a hard time building a theory of mind, which means I can’t read code written by others. If you can't read code written by others, that's going to be a big concern for companies that require you to read and modify other people's code. Perhaps you need to be a contractor, not an employee.

Yikes! https://gavinhoward.com/2023/04/rust-is-dead-to-me/ > Rust the language is dead to me. > why? > Because, quite literally, the Rust Foundation wants to make people like me unwelcome in any Rust event, not just official ones. > Don’t believe me? > Look at the draft Rust Trademark Policy that the Rust Foundation is asking for comments on and go to page 12: > > We will consider requests to use the Marks on a case…

I've never had anything to do with guns and I admit I find it weird to want to bring one to a rust conference, ridiculous actually. I do see the point though that whoever came up with these rules is intentionally provoking people. Why would a software project have firearms policy other than as a sort of discrimination or put differently a way of showing the kind of people who are welcome and those who are not. Laws are what they are, and if someone is complying with the law completely unrelated to the software, I don't think my software should have an opinion about that. It's a loud dog whistle and a provocation, not a useful policy.

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#382

Post by hoherd »

moneywoes wrote: post #266
hoherd wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of one of my coworkers who was interviewing around for his next job. One company he was interviewing for had a website with public facing user profiles. My coworker found a SQL injection vuln and wrote a POC virus that would spread to any other account that was logged in while viewing an infected profile and took it with him to his interview, gave them the code, and showed them how they could fix it.…

Did they give him the job? Unfortunately doesn’t sound like a scalable application strategy

Hah, indeed! IIRC he decided not to take the position and stay with the company. I don't know if they made him an offer.

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#383

Post by hoherd »

beebmam wrote: post #257
hoherd wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me of one of my coworkers who was interviewing around for his next job. One company he was interviewing for had a website with public facing user profiles. My coworker found a SQL injection vuln and wrote a POC virus that would spread to any other account that was logged in while viewing an infected profile and took it with him to his interview, gave them the code, and showed them how they could fix it.…

There's no way he found this without actually performing sql injection attacks. Not a good idea.

True. AFAIK he had created multiple accounts to play with, so he was exploiting his own test accounts. But as I said, we all talked about how risky of a move that was.

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#384

Post by loeg »

hef19898 wrote: post #252
gavinhoward wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went shooting with previous colleagues. They carried guns to the workplace too.

Something is deeply wrong with the USA, like truely and deeply wrong.

Eh, this guy doesn't speak for us.

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#385

Post by prawn »

gavinhoward wrote: post #203
prawn wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can appreciate that plans and motivations change, but I read that page about intent and the update at the bottom was about getting a letter from Romney. FYI, I'd found the campaign content from the Gab link, which didn't have the campaign-termination announcement. "If I lose, I will run for Senate of the United States against Mitt Romney in 2024. I will not go away." "And if I lose, I will then run for President of…

Oh, yes, I'd better post it to Gab. Let's just say that there was an external reason why I lost motivation that I could tell a potential employer, and they would understand. I won't repeat it on HN though. In reality, I know why I'm not getting a job. I'll not a good fit for sterile office work. And that's okay for both me and companies; their are right to avoid hiring me.

As long as you're not surprised by the dampening on your job prospects. I feel like there's a difference between not being a good fit, and not getting the opportunity to prove you're not a good fit. Some of your filter, as many are suggesting, is well before the interview process.

I'm mid-40s and have worked for myself since my late teens. I recently realised that I'm likely unemployable in a traditional office sense, and so will need to make everything work off my own back until retirement. Things are good now, but prospects and perceptions change quickly with age, depending on your field.

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#386

Post by quickthrower2 »

lylejantzi3rd wrote: post #173
quickthrower2 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be the other way around: they downloaded your resume after reading your blog post.

Even small companies get hundreds of applications per job posting. How often do you think hiring managers go out hunting for resumes on blogs?

1. Post a great blog post or series

2. 100k devs view it

3. One of them thinks “we are hiring and fed up if interviewing turkeys, how about this person who had demonstrated knowledge”

4. Internal email to hiring manager “i recommend calling this one, here is the CV…”

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#387

Post by czechdeveloper »

themoonisachees wrote: post #197
czechdeveloper wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to say that that part in Rust Trademark Policy also gave me a stop. It's just so weird to single it out.

It's good PR CYA. They ensure that there will be a much lower chance of an article headlined "mass shooting at rust conference" being written. I am personal'y of the opinion that brands play it too safe in general and people aren't stupid and know that just because a brand happened to be near something bad doesn't mean the brand is responsible and therefore bad, but apparently brands don't agree and they're the ones…

I understood it more as taking current US gun debate to Trademark Policy. Very weird.

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#388

Post by berkes »

nsxwolf wrote: post #358
camhenlin wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've held various roles over the years and personally believe that public contributions and innovative open source projects will often impress potential employers. Despite not coding much professionally anymore, I engage in fun personal open-source coding to maintain my skills. This strategy even played a part in securing my latest, predominantly non-coding role. After reading your post, I reviewed your GitHub profil…

So, it sounds like having a Github could be a net negative. I don't treat personal projects like I treat production code at work. I experiment, don't write a lot of unit tests, use bad practices because they're easier, and I get bored and abandon things because after all, it's not like I'm being paid for any of this. If that's going to be seen as a red flag, then I'm not going to share any of that.

Just communicate clearly why it is how it is.

I've some GH repos whose quality I'm ashamed of today. But it's clear they were developed by a person with 12 years less experience than me today. It's clear it was just a hobby-project or clear that it wasn't ever meant to be continued this long. A line like "The code in X is a mess and needs a refactoring" is enough.

It is to me, when I researched candidates. When a ticket, todo or note shows that the author is clearly aware of the problems, and shows she/he can weigh off why (not) to fix that today, it tells -me- they are good in what they do.

A dev who shows to make decisions about quality, effort, workflows, based on experience and reasoning, to me, is worth a hundred devs that blindly follow The Sacrosanct Rule Of The Latest Cargo Cult Religion™. A dev who shows she/he grew over time, by showing "terrible" code in the past, to me, is worth a hundred devs that have been doing the exact same rituals for years or decades.

So, yes: by all means, show your worst stuff. But be sure it's clear that you know its "bad" and why.

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#389

Post by maccard »

sph wrote: post #186
maccard wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People increasingly don't even read the posts before the go off on ideological rants and false accusations. Eh? The comment I replied to said `The only potentially "controversial" idea (as in, corp might not like it but will have to deal with it) that is still accepted in tech is being trans or a furry. I have no issue with either, mind you, just pointing out that anything else is a no-no.`

I should be able to mention it en passant without having to dive deep into my opinions of the matter which are wholly unrelated and just a way to entrap me. The discussion is around identity, and mentioning that these days only gender identity is a corporate-acceptable struggle. I claim that identity in general should be celebrated. I shan't be afraid to say, on my blog I'm an anarchist, or, for argument's sake, I'm…

> I should be able to mention it en passant without having to dive deep into my opinions of the matter which are wholly unrelated

No, you don't get to do that on any topic. If you write a blog post on a programming language feature, and in the middle of your post decide to slip in a note about your feelings on the middle east conflict, web3/crypto or your political opinions, expect people to talk about that. You decided it was important enough to mention in your post, so it's up for discussion.

> and just a way to entrap me.

Nah, you don't get "woe is me" card if you shoehorn in a dog whistle and get called out on it.

> I shan't be afraid to say, on my blog I'm an anarchist, or, for argument's sake, I'm a satanist, I am trans, I vote Trump, Google is a shitty company, or Star Wars is a terrible franchise.

Do that. But don't be surprised if people treat your words equally.

If you can't keep your message on-point, that's a you problem, not an everyone else problem.

Re: It doesn’t take much public creativity to stand out as a job candidate

#390

Post by okeuro49 »

WJW wrote: post #146
okeuro49 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your blog post: > Got another programming job. Got fired for "performance." I think the reason wasn’t good, but I also have a hard time building a theory of mind, which means I can’t read code written by others. If you can't read code written by others, that's going to be a big concern for companies that require you to read and modify other people's code. Perhaps you need to be a contractor, not an employee.

> Perhaps you need to be a contractor, not an employee. If you can't read code by written by others, being a (software) contractor is probably the worst job you could have. Now you need to read new code at every new client you start at.

I worked with a contractor who implements an abstraction layer for a communication protocol: goes into a company, provides an integration for the protocol, then leaves.

Similarly I've worked for someone who sets up a continuos integration systems.

There are contracting jobs that don't require you to read the code of others.

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