I really, really want to see Crystal succeed. I've been playing with it over the past few weeks. Since it is so Ruby-like, it's the first language I sat down and pretty much immediately knew how to achieve most of my goals. And having Spec (RSpec-like testing framework) made me nostalgic. I hope to see a critical mass grow behind this one.
The dystopian world of software engineering interviews
401–410 of 851 posts
Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews
#402Earlier quoted context omitted.
what are better recruitment ideas replacing cover letters ? (honest question)
What worked for me, after my boss just put up a stock ad and got hundreds of replies then decided that they couldn't cope and handed the problem to me. First spam all the applicants and say terribly sorry there's been a transition in the team and now I am in charge. Enclose copy of new ad, in email emphasise that I have tier CV and want ~100 words explaining what they understand about the job: - ask for a very specif…
very interesting thanks a lot
Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews
#403Earlier quoted context omitted.
what are better recruitment ideas replacing cover letters ? (honest question)
I wish I had answers. I don't - I just know that cover letters aren't it. I've been on both sides of hiring at this point. On the applicant side, I have never seen any indication that anyone has ever read my cover letters. Writing them is a chore. And though my sample size is very limited, I have never had success with bespoke cover letters/cold emails/etc.; the time has always been better spent on reaching more peop…
Often I think all these (cover letters are not the only artefact) are just postural items to see who's gonna make the effort no matter what use it has. A kind of faith leap.
Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews
#404Earlier quoted context omitted.
You joined a giant megacorp. They’re all like that. There’s very little difference between Google and Oracle in this regard.
From what I've read, Google is a much more humane and pleasant environment to develop software in.
That's what I hear, but then I see comments from folks like User5283 above. I have the impression it may be changing into something much more similar to a typical corporation after years of avoiding that fate.
Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews
#405In my personal experience, having interviewed dozens of candidates (data science), I believe that asking "easy" and "simple" questions is the most effective way to probe the problem-solving skills of a candidate. Fun and interesting solutions to easy questions are hallmarks of great individuals. The question would go like this: Suppose I have a column-oriented file and I want to print out a column in a reverse-sorted…
A column orientated file? What format? Excel? CSV? What is cut, sort or head? Are you only accepting Linux candidates then, a tiny percentage of users? This sort of utter nonsense question, heavily loaded to your "standard" experience, which is anything but, is even worse than the questions cited in the article. All you're doing is filtering for people who are in your tribe, who followed the same path as you and thin…
`cut`, `sort`, and `head` are basic Unix commands. Even in a Windows world, they're easily available (either running Ubuntu terminal or cygwin).
This is like complaining that you can't read the basics of a new programming language.
Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews
#406Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hah! Reminds me of https://twitter.com/mxcl/status/608682016205344768 . Cynical answer though — Google does not want people like you. They don't want to hire entrepreneurs or inventors. They want people who can churn out code when given specific instructions, and that is what their interview process optimizes for.
It is actually pretty well known that the second way into FAANGs is through acquisition.
I've heard of at least some of the FAANGs do the typical interview process for acquisitions.
Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews
#407Every time I read one of these articles, I'm surprised at the complexity of the coding questions the candidates had to solve. When I interviewed for my jobs, the questions were much simpler, and as an interviewer myself, I (a) pick much simpler questions and (b) even so, the candidates tend to have plenty of struggles solving them. Am I really missing an army of engineers who can write an involved image filter in 45…
Ah, image filter is easy with python:
import math from "some huge math lib that does everything you can think of"
print math(image)Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews
#408I've been doing initial phone screens (small companies) this week (two just today, actually), and with all of them when the recruiter (internal or external) gets to the "we'd like to send you a coding challenge" I interject with: "Let's do a code exchange. I'll point you at some of my GH projects, and you send me some of your code". So far they've accepted ("I'll forward it to the hiring manager"), and it's far too s…
In my opinion this should be the only way things are done. And it does work it just depends on if the company gets OSS
Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews
#409Earlier quoted context omitted.
One thing to note about coding interviews, they're very simular to somone looking over your shoulder while you're working. Nobody can perform well like that.. One great colleague who I wish I was in the interview for, simple started thinking out loud. Everything he was thinking, he said out loud, and of course, the team loved it. Because thats all it's about. If its not over a video chat/submission, comment your code…
I did that for an interview for what is now my employer. It was via Skype with a shared code editor. The interviewer asked me to implement a data structure that I had not used (directly—I'm sure plenty of libraries I use utilize it) since college, and I said as much. I told him I was quickly looking it up on Wikipedia, skimmed the article (mumbling to myself, I'm sure), and then proceeded to implement it. My candor a…
It's certainly true that larger tech companies will not allow much of the 'workflow' into the interview, but this is usually down to the interviewers not being technically sound on the project(s) and most of the time just given a script with certain criterea, who are usually contracted to do so.
This is no fault of those recruiters, just that sometimes they are given very strict guidelines which can hamper creativity within an interview.
Re: The dystopian world of software engineering interviews
#410I've been doing initial phone screens (small companies) this week (two just today, actually), and with all of them when the recruiter (internal or external) gets to the "we'd like to send you a coding challenge" I interject with: "Let's do a code exchange. I'll point you at some of my GH projects, and you send me some of your code". So far they've accepted ("I'll forward it to the hiring manager"), and it's far too s…
One approach I really like is a company that will vet you and decide you have promise, then decide to hire you on the spot for some small amount of contract work. "Ok, you seem great, let's commit to 40 hours of work from you on whatever schedule you want, and we'll see how that goes." This lets you squeeze that in on evenings and weekends if you want and not quit your current job. Costs them very little and is way more productive than a standard interview loop.