Building and Running a Geographically Distributed Engineering Team
1–10 of 37 posts
Re: Building and Running a Geographically Distributed Engineering Team
#2"Hiring remote engineers by flying them in turned out to be a disaster. Great engineers — and great people — can sometimes turn out to be shitty at being remote,” Smith said. “The reason is they’ve never worked remotely before and they’re not used to distractions at home so they’re on their best behavior."
That's an interesting argument. I guess it's just an example and I shouldn't read too much into it, but to me the opposite is true: at home I am completely in sync with my surroundings, have no distractions and have certain "rituals" that make me more productive. It's the constant interruptions and distractions at the office that would make me terribly unproductive if someone would fly me in to assess my abilities on-site.
Re: Building and Running a Geographically Distributed Engineering Team
#3"Hiring remote engineers by flying them in turned out to be a disaster. Great engineers — and great people — can sometimes turn out to be shitty at being remote,” Smith said. “The reason is they’ve never worked remotely before and they’re not used to distractions at home so they’re on their best behavior." That's an interesting argument. I guess it's just an example and I shouldn't read too much into it, but to me th…
Then you might be a great remote worker. The point is to trial them in the environment they're actually going to be working in.
Re: Building and Running a Geographically Distributed Engineering Team
#4"Hiring remote engineers by flying them in turned out to be a disaster. Great engineers — and great people — can sometimes turn out to be shitty at being remote,” Smith said. “The reason is they’ve never worked remotely before and they’re not used to distractions at home so they’re on their best behavior." That's an interesting argument. I guess it's just an example and I shouldn't read too much into it, but to me th…
Absolutely this for me, too. I find it hard to buckle down and hack productively in flow in any open office plan (which is all startups). I end up going to one of the "meeting rooms" and staying in there holed up all day with headphones on facing away from the windows into the hallway just to get any work done, and even then, I get constant interruptions because I end up having to turn the lights off because they're too bright, and people think the room's empty and available (even when "booked" through those fancy systems some companies use).
Meanwhile, working remote, I can lay on the couch or in bed and hack meaningfully for 12 hours and do it again the day after. Actually, this is what I do for side projects while I'm on vacation, and it's how I truly de-stress and relax. It strikes me as completely strange that I have to explain this to pretty much every single (non-recruiter) person that emails me about a job about why I am only interested in remote positions. How can the tech industry be so old and this idea still so foreign?
Re: Building and Running a Geographically Distributed Engineering Team
#5"Hiring remote engineers by flying them in turned out to be a disaster. Great engineers — and great people — can sometimes turn out to be shitty at being remote,” Smith said. “The reason is they’ve never worked remotely before and they’re not used to distractions at home so they’re on their best behavior." That's an interesting argument. I guess it's just an example and I shouldn't read too much into it, but to me th…
Then you might be a great remote worker. The point is to trial them in the environment they're actually going to be working in.
This also helps avoid chicken-or-egg problems such as "You haven't worked remotely before, so we won't hire you to work remotely".
Re: Building and Running a Geographically Distributed Engineering Team
#6"Hiring remote engineers by flying them in turned out to be a disaster. Great engineers — and great people — can sometimes turn out to be shitty at being remote,” Smith said. “The reason is they’ve never worked remotely before and they’re not used to distractions at home so they’re on their best behavior." That's an interesting argument. I guess it's just an example and I shouldn't read too much into it, but to me th…
Absolutely this for me, too. I find it hard to buckle down and hack productively in flow in any open office plan (which is all startups). I end up going to one of the "meeting rooms" and staying in there holed up all day with headphones on facing away from the windows into the hallway just to get any work done, and even then, I get constant interruptions because I end up having to turn the lights off because they're…
I end up having to turn the lights off because they're too bright
Hear hear; I work remotely and check-in physically maybe twice a month when delegates come down to our satellite office. I find artificial lighting absolutely grating. Working from home it's a rarity for me to turn on a light until as late as dusk.
Re: Building and Running a Geographically Distributed Engineering Team
#7OMFG. their hiring process is ... worrying. An online test, phone screen, hour of paired hacking then a conditional offer and a "hack week" - a weeks try out.
I balk at doing screening tests like hackerrank. I don't get how you can expect someone to spend a probationary week, with no real guarantee of work. they stop the job hunt, tell other employers no thanks, and bang 50/50 pass rate perhaps?
I don't get it. Hiring remote is hard but this seems too much.
Re: Building and Running a Geographically Distributed Engineering Team
#8OMFG. their hiring process is ... worrying. An online test, phone screen, hour of paired hacking then a conditional offer and a "hack week" - a weeks try out. I balk at doing screening tests like hackerrank. I don't get how you can expect someone to spend a probationary week, with no real guarantee of work. they stop the job hunt, tell other employers no thanks, and bang 50/50 pass rate perhaps? I don't get it. Hirin…
Yeah, apart from contractors who are between gigs, I can't imagine very many people who can work for a week as part of the hiring process. And even if many applicants could, I think it takes longer, sometimes quite a bit longer, to accurately assess the degree to which a developer will contribute to a engineering organization.
Re: Building and Running a Geographically Distributed Engineering Team
#9OMFG. their hiring process is ... worrying. An online test, phone screen, hour of paired hacking then a conditional offer and a "hack week" - a weeks try out. I balk at doing screening tests like hackerrank. I don't get how you can expect someone to spend a probationary week, with no real guarantee of work. they stop the job hunt, tell other employers no thanks, and bang 50/50 pass rate perhaps? I don't get it. Hirin…
I'm in the same boat. I take a hard pass on any company/exercise that can't be done in the span of 2 hours.
The one time I took one that was 4 hours it was (luckily for me) a disaster
Re: Building and Running a Geographically Distributed Engineering Team
#10OMFG. their hiring process is ... worrying. An online test, phone screen, hour of paired hacking then a conditional offer and a "hack week" - a weeks try out. I balk at doing screening tests like hackerrank. I don't get how you can expect someone to spend a probationary week, with no real guarantee of work. they stop the job hunt, tell other employers no thanks, and bang 50/50 pass rate perhaps? I don't get it. Hirin…
I balk at doing screening tests like hackerrank
Hackerranking is not a good proxy, unless the job is solving online quizzes. Nevertheless, most can't turn their back on a job opportunity at the very first red flag.