Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

If you're hiring, be forthcoming about the dev experience

rachelbythebay.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 131 posts

Re: If you're hiring, be forthcoming about the dev experience

#41

Post by bryanrasmussen »

saagarjha wrote: post #15
rsify wrote: post #11

Do you think that companies like G are going to be able to hire literally anyone if they start advertising all the mess that they are working around? Why would you write this article from an engineer's standpoint with arguments that will only benefit other engineer's but for some reason is directed at companies? Why not just call it "I'm upset with the dev experience" and be honest about your intentions?

Because presumably Rachel would like companies to look at their policies and change them if the match the poor qualities mentioned here.

but she says > This way, if it sucks, people can see it as a warning and stay far away.

which implies she thinks companies should tell potential hires you won't like working here and should run away, which I doubt many companies will listen to that advice and think "sounds good".

That said what you said would be a good thing for companies who are afraid to tell what their dev experience is like to consider.

Re: If you're hiring, be forthcoming about the dev experience

#42

Post by my_usernam3 »

I find it hypocritical that developers preach "languages don't matter, a good engineer is a good engineer", while also being very specific to work environments. Personally, I want the environment thats most similar to my coworkers to create the least amount of friction during on-boarding and documentation based learning.

Don't get me wrong, there are bad dev experiences that can be had. However, from my experience its definitely not mac vs linux vs pc, but rather intricacies that are unlikely to be able to be explained during the recruitment process. And if they can, why would they? It's not like applicants are being super truthful on their resumes.

Re: If you're hiring, be forthcoming about the dev experience

#43

Post by t-writescode »

dbetteridge wrote: post #37
cs02rm0 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have to agree, this really sounds more or less as bad as it gets. I mean SSL MITM?!

Hey I never said that was a good thing, It's probably my biggest bug-bear and I shout about it regularly at anyone in our IT team who will listen :)

can you bring your own device in? This sounds like the sort of company you have your personal laptop beside your work one and go to that machine to do things like check your email, buy lunch, listen to music.

All while trying to get them to improve their policy, of course.

Re: If you're hiring, be forthcoming about the dev experience

#44

Post by jan_g »

I once joined a company of couple of thousand employees (as software engineer). The interviewer assured me that employees can pick whichever laptop or PC they want. Ok, great, I thought, then asked for a Thinkpad.

A funny thing happened after I started to work - IT department was unable to procure me that laptop. After ~3 weeks they said that the company they order hardware from can't provide Thinkpads for the foreseeable future. So I've asked to just order from Amazon or similar. Nope, can't be done. My manager just shrugged and told me to ask for standard Dell laptop like everyone else in the company. Yeah, it arrived on my desk the next day. Later I found out that company works like that in many different areas. Lots of freedom and choices on a first glance, but once actually needing something, there was always only one way to have it done. Usually the most annoying and time consuming way.

So, the interviewer wasn't wrong in telling me that I can choose what I want, but the company makes sure everyone ends up with the same setup. Somewhat similar to Henry Ford's "you can pick any color as long as it's black".

Re: If you're hiring, be forthcoming about the dev experience

#45

Post by C1sc0cat »

dbetteridge wrote: post #22

Have to say that the company I work for has improved this leaps and bounds in the last 5 years but still has a ways to go. Macs can be requested for devs but Windows is still the default for users. lots of services being migrated into azure/office365 means no longer needing the VPN for everything but sharing large files is still primarily done via mapped network drives, which requires the VPN. Security team unfortuna…

I realy don't get this fetishization (and I am using this in its medical sense) of macs as laptops/workstations for developers.

You PC (Mac or Wintel) is just something to run your editors xwindows what have you like company C

Re: If you're hiring, be forthcoming about the dev experience

#46

Post by DoofusOfDeath »

my_usernam3 wrote: post #42

I find it hypocritical that developers preach "languages don't matter, a good engineer is a good engineer", while also being very specific to work environments. Personally, I want the environment thats most similar to my coworkers to create the least amount of friction during on-boarding and documentation based learning. Don't get me wrong, there are bad dev experiences that can be had. However, from my experience it…

It never even occured to me to lie on my resume. Surely I can't be the only one.

Re: If you're hiring, be forthcoming about the dev experience

#47

Post by Jugurtha »

giantDinosaur wrote: post #31
Jugurtha wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I had also become violent towards my machines, punching and kicking them several feet up.

Why did you punish the machines for the software? :( Edit: Ah, I see, you removed the violent rage towards machines running windows part.

I was young and immature and started doing that after I tried everything. I was also stuck with a "faulty" RAM which I couldn't replace that I thought was causing this. That situation occurred often enough and right when I really didn't want it to happen - like saving work - that it became irritating.

Re: If you're hiring, be forthcoming about the dev experience

#48

Post by GordonS »

jan_g wrote: post #44

I once joined a company of couple of thousand employees (as software engineer). The interviewer assured me that employees can pick whichever laptop or PC they want. Ok, great, I thought, then asked for a Thinkpad. A funny thing happened after I started to work - IT department was unable to procure me that laptop. After ~3 weeks they said that the company they order hardware from can't provide Thinkpads for the forese…

Most enterprise-scale companies are like that, only using a single source for procurement of laptops, desktops and monitors, and making it impossible to buy IT yourself and expense it.

Re: If you're hiring, be forthcoming about the dev experience

#49

Post by FartyMcFarter »

Jugurtha wrote: post #26
Maledictus wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High blood pressure.

This. I had also become violent towards my machines, punching and kicking them several feet up.

This sounds like a mostly separate issue which you should get help for. Operating systems, by themselves, do not cause people to kick things.

Re: If you're hiring, be forthcoming about the dev experience

#50

Post by dbetteridge »

t-writescode wrote: post #43
dbetteridge wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey I never said that was a good thing, It's probably my biggest bug-bear and I shout about it regularly at anyone in our IT team who will listen :)

can you bring your own device in? This sounds like the sort of company you have your personal laptop beside your work one and go to that machine to do things like check your email, buy lunch, listen to music. All while trying to get them to improve their policy, of course.

I've not had the need to do so, there's no issues using work machines for any of the above. The sec team just has some weird ideas on restricting work machines networking.

but yes if we want too there's no rules against using our own machines.

We can login to things like the company github etc using sso/ssh from our own machines, just not the Intranet services.

Post reply on HN