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More on Hiring Software Developers

hesh.am

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Re: More on Hiring Software Developers

#41

Post by vonmoltke »

kelseyfrancis wrote: post #35
vonmoltke wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He specifically said "since it was all inside a single tag". Without knowing what the payload of the tag is, its hard to say if regex was appropriate or not.

> its hard to say if regex was appropriate or not I'd say it's never appropriate to parse XML with a regex. Even if you're just looking for something "inside a single tag", there are just too many gotchas like entities, CDATA sections, etc. Why bother with (or forget) any of that when there are well-tested XML libraries for probably every language, and many languages have it in their standard library.

I think you and I are reading the statement differently. I did not read it as he was using regex to parse the XML; I read it as he as using regex to parse the text contents of a particular tag that he extracted using a standard XML parser.

Re: More on Hiring Software Developers

#42

Post by cema »

ronilan wrote: post #12

It's like, really, totally, entirely, off-topic, but, like I heard, somewhere, that some companies, like might, may be using, sometime, the following puzzle in their hiring process: Imagine a world in which: 1. A players hire only A players; 2. B players hire C players; and C players hire D players etc. all the way down to Z players. Assume that: 1. The trickle-down effect from B to Z causes bozo explosions in compan…

So who hires the B players?

Re: More on Hiring Software Developers

#43

Post by cema »

thezoid wrote: post #15
ronilan wrote: post #12

It's like, really, totally, entirely, off-topic, but, like I heard, somewhere, that some companies, like might, may be using, sometime, the following puzzle in their hiring process: Imagine a world in which: 1. A players hire only A players; 2. B players hire C players; and C players hire D players etc. all the way down to Z players. Assume that: 1. The trickle-down effect from B to Z causes bozo explosions in compan…

A players should work on pulling people in other categories into their category. If everyone works on making everybody better you can make the place better. Rejecting people because they don't match your idea of an A player (I'm assuming 'perfection') is pretty narrow minded.

I think you have a great point. But I would like to see a world where it happens the way you described it.

Re: More on Hiring Software Developers

#44

Post by cema »

kelseyfrancis wrote: post #33
thezoid wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A players should work on pulling people in other categories into their category. If everyone works on making everybody better you can make the place better. Rejecting people because they don't match your idea of an A player (I'm assuming 'perfection') is pretty narrow minded.

> If everyone works on making everybody better you can make the place better. I totally agree with this, but it requires active participation on everyone's part. It only works when people want to learn and actually want to produce high quality work. Many people don't seem to have any desire to improve their output. How do you fix a person's work ethic?

  How do you fix a person's work ethic?
I don't think you can, and the question is, is it possible to recognize the culture fit/misfit during the interview process.

Re: More on Hiring Software Developers

#45

Post by cema »

vonmoltke wrote: post #21
jheriko wrote: post #10

"I took me 2 hours to figure out how to parse the RSS feed, extract the data I need using regex (since it was all inside a single tag) and present it in a table view." i hate to be negative or damning in anyway - you make many valid points. however what you did there is an awful performance imo. i suspect it comes from living in web circles too much. i mean... you used a regex? this is one of the rare cases where i w…

> i hate to be negative or damning in anyway - you make many valid points. however what you did there is an awful performance imo. i suspect it comes from living in web circles too much. i mean... you used a regex? this is one of the rare cases where i would write a c program with old fashioned procedural logic and expect it to be done much faster and to a higher quality. You were able to come to these conclusions wi…

  teach to the test
Yeah. At some point the candidate will become a professional candidate. I would rather stay a professional developer instead.

Re: More on Hiring Software Developers

#46

Post by buerkle »

kelseyfrancis wrote: post #35
vonmoltke wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He specifically said "since it was all inside a single tag". Without knowing what the payload of the tag is, its hard to say if regex was appropriate or not.

> its hard to say if regex was appropriate or not I'd say it's never appropriate to parse XML with a regex. Even if you're just looking for something "inside a single tag", there are just too many gotchas like entities, CDATA sections, etc. Why bother with (or forget) any of that when there are well-tested XML libraries for probably every language, and many languages have it in their standard library.

Of course regex is appropriate in some cases. You parse XML with a standard API, then use a regex on the contents of a single tag. For all we know, inside the tag could have been "img: foobar", regex works great in that case.

Re: More on Hiring Software Developers

#47

Post by kabdib »

tbrownaw wrote: post #26
kabdib wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, it's narrow-minded. But it's SURVIVAL. The times I've had to work with mis-hires have been awful, miserable and very depressing times. Like, they made me not want to come into work. I was once the "human grep" for the mis-hire that sat across the hall from me. Constant questions; apologetic questions, but continual and unrelenting and stupid questions. Q: "Where does this function get called?" Me: "Search fo…

So the only possibilities are that someone is practically perfect in every way (A), or entirely incompetent (B-Z)?

No, but

- try to hire people who are better than you

- remember that people do grow; recognize potential, but don't assume that someone can be fixed

The sense that someone is merely adequate is a killer. When I'm on the fence about hiring someone, the correct answer is "No hire."

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