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Who ever said I was interviewing for a job? I was commenting on the state of the industry as a whole. Read some of the comments (and the article). The articl

Who ever said I was interviewing for a job? I was commenting on the state of the industry as a whole. Read some of the comments (and the article). The article mentioned that one person who multiple companies thought was the best they have ever seen got rejected from the first company he interviews with because he didn' write tests. Hiring is so subjective. This comment in particular really illustrates the sad state of our industry, and why I don't usually write comments on the Internet and why I wrote this under a throwaway account. Thanks for making my point: To repeat: "You're all talk." "If you can learn Ruby in a few days why haven't you done it yet over the last 10 years?" Here's why: I made well over 400K this year at my job. I am not jumping through hoops killing myself to learn new things I may not even need. My time away from work is too precious to me. By the way, I am paid 400K because I am a really good programmer and problem solver and can use whatever tools I need to to get the job done. It doesn't matter if I've never used the language before. I will figure it out. Plus: most places won't even talk to me because I make more than what they are willing to pay. Oh wait; I guess this is all talk too. PS: If patio11 is reading this comment, I will happily verify these facts with him via my real personal email. To prove that this comment isn't just "all talk". I really hate the Internet sometimes.

tinco 11y ago
I'm not saying you're all talk, I said you signal you're all talk. If you don't have issues getting a job, why are you posting about the state of hiring here? It makes no sense. You've got replies trying to understand if there's ageism that's dragging you down, but you have a 400k job. edit: I am sorry I offended you. I really did not mean to say that you are all talk, I thought we were talking about how Java programmers should apply to SV jobs and was trying to give you a hiring side perspective, but I guess I am a bit tired and I misread your point.
- marshray 11y ago
  Hmm, maybe these "signals" you're reading are not actually good predictors of either skill or marketability.
eldavido 11y ago
I'd be really interested to know the rough details of your work situation. Sounds like you've got a pretty good thing going.
LordHumungous 11y ago
I should work in finance.
- throwaway456789 11y ago
  Yes. You should if you want to make a lot of money...
  - staunch 11y ago
    If you only care about money. BTW, making $400k in finance is not particularly high. Nor is it evidence that you're a great programmer. Finance companies have to pay huge premiums to attract and retain people. Just about any programmer can make 2x working on Wall Street. Very few good programmers are willing to work for these finance companies. It doesn't seem like you've thought much about why that is.
    - rluhar 11y ago
      Finance companies do have incredible technical and regulatory challenges that require good programmers. There are a number of strong programmers who work in finance and are indeed attracted to some of the challenges around finance. I have worked across a number of banks and each has had its own challenges and I have worked with talented and motivated programmers working to solve these.
jakub_g 11y ago
Well with this kind of compensation, wherever you live, if you needed to find a new job I guess you could probably survive a month or two without a paycheck, learn a new language and do a pet project, contribute to open source. Of course when you work full time, 60h/week, and don't want to resign from current job while seeking a new one, it's pretty hard, but I can assure you it's as hard for anyone else working full time. Learning new tech stack in spare time is not easy, and you can't and shouldn't learn all of them, 'cause in a few years half of the stuff you learn today will be obsolete.
reefoctopus 11y ago
What sort of company do you work for? Is it a government contractor? I've known many highly paid people in that line of work that are not fit for startups.
- throwaway456789 11y ago
  All I'm willing to say here is that I work in financial services. Actually, one of the reasons why I mentioned patio11 above was because it would interesting to talk to him about this kind of stuff given he's also trying to change how tech companies hire talent. I've thought about trying his star fighter project, but it's another example of "invest a lot of time on the side in doing something tangentially related to work that may be construed as fun, and you can maybe get an interview from it". That's what has been illustrated in a lot of the comments on this thread. "Why not learn Ruby?" "Why not contribute to OSS on the side?" "Why not keep up with new technologies?" It's work, that's why. Sure, it can be fun and fulfilling but I already spend 55-60 hours a week doing this stuff, and I have other interests. Am I really expected to do all of this stuff on the side just to get a job at a highly desirable place like a YC startup? Let's use star fighter as an example. I already work in financial services. To some people who work on apps and user interface design and have never worked in financial services before, I could get the appeal of working on something new... But to me, star fighter is just doing my job outside of work hours in an attempt to get another job. I would rather keep solving problems at my own company, and increase my value to them in the process... ...but that means I'll just write more "Enterprise" Java, and not learn new things! It's a catch-22.
  - ScottBurson 11y ago
    If you're making $400k, but you don't really love your job, my suggestion would be to save as much money as you can, to the point that you can become financially independent. Then you can start your own startup if you want; or take a year off, half to relax and half to learn some new stuff, and get a different job, if that's what you want.
  - mailshanx 11y ago
    I'd be very grateful if I can talk to you about your journey / career path. Could you shoot me an email (mailshanx at yahoo dot co dot in)? I'll be immensely grateful if do :)
benihana 11y ago
>Here's why: I made well over 400K this year at my job. I am not jumping through hoops killing myself to learn new things I may not even need. My time away from work is too precious to me This is what makes you all talk. You say in other comments that you're a really good programmer and you express concern that people are passing on you. Then you make this post swinging your dick around saying how much you make and how you don't need to learn new things. If that's the case, why are you whining about ageism? Why are you asking why the hiring managers pass on you? You don't want help, you just want to complain. >I really hate the Internet sometimes. Love this part. You make a post whining about how senpai doesn't notice you, insult the careers of people you're talking to, try to namedrop someone, brag about your salary, then bellyache like everyone else is the asshole.
- dang 11y ago
  We've banned this account for repeatedly violating the HN guidelines, despite repeated requests not to. If you don't want it to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com. We're happy to unban anyone as long as there is reason to believe that they'll follow the rules in the future.
  - aquateen 11y ago
    benihana made good points IMO. A couple PG-13 words doesn't warrant a ban.
    - dang 11y ago
      If you mean profanity, we don't care about that. We care about chronic abusiveness. Note those words 'repeatedly' and 'repeated' above.
patio11 11y ago
I'm slightly busy this week with the impending launch of Stockfighter and would prefer to not be HN's designated notary public, as I'm just another geek here, but if you want to chat about career stuff my inbox is always open. (Offer good for anybody.) FWIW I have _zero_ difficulty believing "finance company pays talented programmers $400k" and equally zero difficulty believing "startup folks mystified how this could possibly happen when that programmer hasn't even installed NodeJS."

tinco 11y ago

I'm not saying you're all talk, I said you signal you're all talk. If you don't have issues getting a job, why are you posting about the state of hiring here? It makes no sense. You've got replies trying to understand if there's ageism that's dragging you down, but you have a 400k job. edit: I am sorry I offended you. I really did not mean to say that you are all talk, I thought we were talking about how Java programmers should apply to SV jobs and was trying to give you a hiring side perspective, but I guess I am a bit tired and I misread your point.

marshray 11y ago
Hmm, maybe these "signals" you're reading are not actually good predictors of either skill or marketability.

eldavido 11y ago

I'd be really interested to know the rough details of your work situation. Sounds like you've got a pretty good thing going.

LordHumungous 11y ago

I should work in finance.

throwaway456789 11y ago
Yes. You should if you want to make a lot of money...
- staunch 11y ago
  If you only care about money. BTW, making $400k in finance is not particularly high. Nor is it evidence that you're a great programmer. Finance companies have to pay huge premiums to attract and retain people. Just about any programmer can make 2x working on Wall Street. Very few good programmers are willing to work for these finance companies. It doesn't seem like you've thought much about why that is.
  - rluhar 11y ago
    Finance companies do have incredible technical and regulatory challenges that require good programmers. There are a number of strong programmers who work in finance and are indeed attracted to some of the challenges around finance. I have worked across a number of banks and each has had its own challenges and I have worked with talented and motivated programmers working to solve these.

jakub_g 11y ago

Well with this kind of compensation, wherever you live, if you needed to find a new job I guess you could probably survive a month or two without a paycheck, learn a new language and do a pet project, contribute to open source. Of course when you work full time, 60h/week, and don't want to resign from current job while seeking a new one, it's pretty hard, but I can assure you it's as hard for anyone else working full time. Learning new tech stack in spare time is not easy, and you can't and shouldn't learn all of them, 'cause in a few years half of the stuff you learn today will be obsolete.

reefoctopus 11y ago

What sort of company do you work for? Is it a government contractor? I've known many highly paid people in that line of work that are not fit for startups.

throwaway456789 11y ago
All I'm willing to say here is that I work in financial services. Actually, one of the reasons why I mentioned patio11 above was because it would interesting to talk to him about this kind of stuff given he's also trying to change how tech companies hire talent. I've thought about trying his star fighter project, but it's another example of "invest a lot of time on the side in doing something tangentially related to work that may be construed as fun, and you can maybe get an interview from it". That's what has been illustrated in a lot of the comments on this thread. "Why not learn Ruby?" "Why not contribute to OSS on the side?" "Why not keep up with new technologies?" It's work, that's why. Sure, it can be fun and fulfilling but I already spend 55-60 hours a week doing this stuff, and I have other interests. Am I really expected to do all of this stuff on the side just to get a job at a highly desirable place like a YC startup? Let's use star fighter as an example. I already work in financial services. To some people who work on apps and user interface design and have never worked in financial services before, I could get the appeal of working on something new... But to me, star fighter is just doing my job outside of work hours in an attempt to get another job. I would rather keep solving problems at my own company, and increase my value to them in the process... ...but that means I'll just write more "Enterprise" Java, and not learn new things! It's a catch-22.
- ScottBurson 11y ago
  If you're making $400k, but you don't really love your job, my suggestion would be to save as much money as you can, to the point that you can become financially independent. Then you can start your own startup if you want; or take a year off, half to relax and half to learn some new stuff, and get a different job, if that's what you want.
- mailshanx 11y ago
  I'd be very grateful if I can talk to you about your journey / career path. Could you shoot me an email (mailshanx at yahoo dot co dot in)? I'll be immensely grateful if do :)

benihana 11y ago

>Here's why: I made well over 400K this year at my job. I am not jumping through hoops killing myself to learn new things I may not even need. My time away from work is too precious to me This is what makes you all talk. You say in other comments that you're a really good programmer and you express concern that people are passing on you. Then you make this post swinging your dick around saying how much you make and how you don't need to learn new things. If that's the case, why are you whining about ageism? Why are you asking why the hiring managers pass on you? You don't want help, you just want to complain. >I really hate the Internet sometimes. Love this part. You make a post whining about how senpai doesn't notice you, insult the careers of people you're talking to, try to namedrop someone, brag about your salary, then bellyache like everyone else is the asshole.

dang 11y ago
We've banned this account for repeatedly violating the HN guidelines, despite repeated requests not to. If you don't want it to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com. We're happy to unban anyone as long as there is reason to believe that they'll follow the rules in the future.
- aquateen 11y ago
  benihana made good points IMO. A couple PG-13 words doesn't warrant a ban.
  - dang 11y ago
    If you mean profanity, we don't care about that. We care about chronic abusiveness. Note those words 'repeatedly' and 'repeated' above.

patio11 11y ago

I'm slightly busy this week with the impending launch of Stockfighter and would prefer to not be HN's designated notary public, as I'm just another geek here, but if you want to chat about career stuff my inbox is always open. (Offer good for anybody.) FWIW I have _zero_ difficulty believing "finance company pays talented programmers $400k" and equally zero difficulty believing "startup folks mystified how this could possibly happen when that programmer hasn't even installed NodeJS."