Hiring Is Broken?
software.rajivprab.com
Hiring Is Broken?
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Re: Hiring Is Broken?
#2Whats the general consensus on take home projects? How helpful are they?
Re: Hiring Is Broken?
#3Whats the general consensus on take home projects? How helpful are they?
Anecdotal survey in my city's community across a couple of companies say 30-50% of people never turn them back in, so while its a powerful tool that gets rid of a lot of issues with typical screens, it introduces friction a lot of people don't want to deal with.
They'd be more useful in a buyer's market.
Re: Hiring Is Broken?
#4This article appears to be an extremely long-winded way of stating that you don't have to pick from the top-end.
Which is true. Companies know this.
Most of the stuff I read here is basically made up of people who aren't quite the best moaning that they couldn't get a job at Google or whatever. Life goes on. It is impractical and not a good thing for every software developer, even the very good ones, to pile into the same companies.
Not everything is set up as a perfect procedure for you.
And even if it was - OK, so you get the job and the Stanford grad doesn't. You swap places. Does that make a better world?
I encourage new developers reading these sort of posts to just ignore the fluff and plug on. You'll get there.
And if not? In five years you might want something else entirely.
I wanted desperately to work at an investment bank as a new grad.
I'm very happy with the path my life has taken instead.
Re: Hiring Is Broken?
#5One thing I’d add is that live coding exercises can vary widely in quality.
> If you solve the problem, you’re scored highly. If you don’t, you’re scored poorly.
In my own opinion, this is a terrible way to look at these problems, though many people do use this metric. This is further emphasized by HackerRank-style exercises where you have to pass all test cases. This is robotic and not empathic at all.
A more fluid and dynamic approach that focuses on the candidate’s approach, ability to clarify, and problem solving, even if the correct answer isn’t reached, can still give valuable signals
Disclaimer: I work and give interviews at a large tech co that uses exercises.
Re: Hiring Is Broken?
#6This article appears to be an extremely long-winded way of stating that you don't have to pick from the top-end. Which is true. Companies know this. Most of the stuff I read here is basically made up of people who aren't quite the best moaning that they couldn't get a job at Google or whatever. Life goes on. It is impractical and not a good thing for every software developer, even the very good ones, to pile into the…
Could the system be better? Yes. But there's also a ridiculous amount of entitlement in the tech industry. There are very few other industries where someone with a bachelors degree or no college degree at all can obtain a low to mid six figure job with no prior work experience + benefits. Even for the average experienced hire, who's compensation can easily exceed that of the average doctor, it isn't like things get worse as your career progresses.
Many of these "hiring is broken in tech" posts are like you said: moaning or a remarkable lack of self-awareness.
Re: Hiring Is Broken?
#7I wonder if people describing hiring as "broken" have only experienced the process from one side. Hiring is a one of my favorite things to work on at my software engineering jobs, because it's a super-hard problem that is always available. It hasn't been "solved" and lots of people do it in ways that are obviously sub-optimal, but I don't think anyone knows how to do it optimally.
I think this is what TFA is getting at.
Re: Hiring Is Broken?
#8This article appears to be an extremely long-winded way of stating that you don't have to pick from the top-end. Which is true. Companies know this. Most of the stuff I read here is basically made up of people who aren't quite the best moaning that they couldn't get a job at Google or whatever. Life goes on. It is impractical and not a good thing for every software developer, even the very good ones, to pile into the…
Your implicit assumption seems to be that Google and its ilk hire the absolute best engineers. This is simply not true, for one very simple reason.
There is no proven method for sorting a pile of candidates such that the absolute best engineers will float to the top. In the case of high-profile employers, a significant percentage of hires will be those who have trained themselves specifically to beat the hiring process at that company. Those people aren’t the absolute best software engineers.
Re: Hiring Is Broken?
#9This article appears to be an extremely long-winded way of stating that you don't have to pick from the top-end. Which is true. Companies know this. Most of the stuff I read here is basically made up of people who aren't quite the best moaning that they couldn't get a job at Google or whatever. Life goes on. It is impractical and not a good thing for every software developer, even the very good ones, to pile into the…
There's an impression that this problem is only at a few places like Google which is not the case. As someone recently browsing the market I've seen this process adopted rampantly and without reason or rationale.
So many companies I would consider mid-tier, lower, or not even technology companies have outsourced have adopted similar if not the same hiring models of FAANG or outsource hiring/recruiting/assessments that follow suit. It's an absolute mess.
Re: Hiring Is Broken?
#10Whats the general consensus on take home projects? How helpful are they?
Anecdotal survey in my city's community across a couple of companies say 30-50% of people never turn them back in, so while its a powerful tool that gets rid of a lot of issues with typical screens, it introduces friction a lot of people don't want to deal with. They'd be more useful in a buyer's market.
Also, I can set aside an hour or two during the day to chat with you. If you ask me to spend hours implementing something on my own time, I will assume you also ask your employees to do that and will completely blow that off.
What you'll end up with is people who are desperate for your job, which may or may not be a great sign.