8 ms·
I had a job interview once where the HR rep asked me how many lines of code I wrote a week. I responded, "On a really good week -1000, I don't remember the exa
by bargl 11y ago
I had a job interview once where the HR rep asked me how many lines of code I wrote a week. I responded, "On a really good week -1000, I don't remember the exact figure." She was extremely confused by this answer and wanted me to give her a number. So she said, "I'll just put down 10,000."
This is also the interview where they refused to continue unless I told them how much money I made (which I don't do anymore). The justification they told me was that they weren't going to give me a 20K raise if I wasn't making that much right now. I didn't point out that they aren't giving me a raise, they are paying me market value based on what the position is worth (to oversimplify it).
I was offered the job but decided not to take it because that plus the technical interview made me wary.
- cpeterso 11y ago520,000 lines of code per year! :)
- Zelphyr 11y agoCouple that with pay and just tell them to pay you $1 per line of code written.
- boxidea 11y ago# Need to increment this count so it matches up with the length of the list we just created. count = 1 count = count + 1 count = count + 1 count = count + 1 count = count + 1 count = count + 1
- bargl 11y agoHa, I guess the developers they are hiring used to be sci-fi writers! But don't most writers say the hardest part is cutting words out of their book and cleaning up language? P.S. I don't remember exactly what she put down as my "line-count" I was pretty annoyed at that point, it might have been a much more reasonable 5000. :-)
- doorhammer 11y agoThis reminds me of a quote I enjoy: "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter." Some interesting attributions of that and similar quotes: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/ http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/shorter-letter/
- avmich 11y agoA good case to use code generators, I guess...
- emidln 11y agoAre we counting the code my macros produce? As far as git is concerned I might be down a couple hundred to a couple thousand in a good week, but if we count macroexpansion, I'm rolling in the LoC.
- creshal 11y agoTime to write yourself a private jet.
- alblue 11y agoObligatory Dilbert: http://dilbert.com/strip/1995-11-13 http://dilbert.com/strip/1995-11-13
- mgkimsal 11y ago> The justification they told me was that they weren't going to give me a 20K raise if I wasn't making that much right now Even after 20+ years in the labor force, I've never understood that justification. "I'm a nosy bastard" at least has a ring of truth to it.
- AnimalMuppet 11y ago"I want to pay you as little as possible and still get you to come to work here." That's the truth.
- onion2k 11y agoActually the truth is more like "I want to pay you as little as possible for you to work here and be productive." People who're worried about money are really bad at their job. They spend all their time thinking about something else. If someone is willing to accept a job on a salary that isn't really enough to live on (say, because they don't know how expensive the area is) then you should pay them more than what they believe their minimum is. Unfortunately hiring managers quite often fail to understand this.
- wdewind 11y agoDon't be so literal about it. I used to get defensive about that question too, but the truth is they aren't asking you how much you are making, they are asking you to start the salary negotiation so they can get a feel for what it's going to take to hire you and describe you adequately to a hiring manager. It's just an opportunity for you both to ballpark the situation and eject early if there's going to be a wide disagreement about comp. It can be equally advantageous to both parties if you use it properly.
- mgkimsal 11y agoNo... there are recruiters who are a lot more invasive and pushy (and a couple employers I've run across). "Proof of previous income" was required at one place I applied years back, and I've heard similar stories from colleagues. No, of course, I don't bother going forward in those situations. "What are you making now?" is crass. The good recruiters I've worked with phrased it as "what are your salary expectations?" or "the range is $x-$y - are you OK with that?" I've taken it literally in situations where they actually meant it literally. "We will not pay you $80k until you can prove you were making $80k at your previous job". Insane, but it does happen on occasion. How those companies ever manage to hire anyone... I'm not sure.
- nickpsecurity 11y agoWhat is the current average in a language like C# or Java for a skilled developer? Average that goes into production rather than what's likely thrown away.
- marcosdumay 11y agoIn a week long project (some supporting tool, or something similar) it's easy to write 10k lines a week. In a 6 months project, 10-100 lines are more likely, and in an "eternal" software that is already mostly written, 0 is a perfectly fine number.
- nickpsecurity 11y agoAppreciate the reply.
- voltagex_ 11y agoI dread the day someone starts tracking LOC vs productivity in TFS. I might be switching between C#, SQL, CSS, HTML and Javascript on a busy day. A context switch == a productivity hit.
- cpitman 11y agoThat was actually one of my favorite moments! Someone pulled up the TFS chart of lines of code added/removed per developer. First, I removed way more lines then I added. But second, the number of lines I removed was (completely accidentally) the same as the number of lines my team lead added. When he saw that, he just kind of looked over at me to make sure I wasn't following him commit by commit to rewrite his code!
- on_and_off 11y agoI have senior in my title so I guess I count as skilled, I work on an Android app (so Java). I have absolutely no idea of what my average LOC / week looks like and could not care less. This is a really dumb metric. Between Annotation processors & code generation plugins, it already means nothing. If you factor in DRY, it is just insane. Am I supposed to willingly write horrible and unproductive code just to increase my LOC / time ?
- duncan_bayne 11y ago> I was offered the job but decided not to take it because that plus the technical interview made me wary. Sounds like you made a great choice :)
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- incepted 11y agoIt's a well-known tactics to lowball you. The standard answer is "I'm not allowed to disclose it" and if they push, I just give them what I want them to give me minus 5% regardless of what the actual number is. If they end up calling my current employer and that this employer gives them the number (which is extremely unlikely), I just tell them "What I'm making right now is irrelevant, I gave you the salary I think I'm worth right now. If you don't agree, I'll just walk, no big deal".
- kriro 11y agoI'd be very tempted to ask the HR person for their salary and/or ask for the CTO/CEO's salary and/or some confidential revenue number or something like that before ending the interview. It's fairly shady negotiating to anchor the process one sided. If they want your salary they should tell you what the highest paid developer makes as well.
- on_and_off 11y agoThese sound like two very big red flags. You have probably dodged a bullet here.
- jamaicahest 11y ago> The justification they told me was that they weren't going to give me a 20K raise if I wasn't making that much right now So you base your salary offer on my current salary, instead of what I would be worth to you guys? Good luck. We're going to be here a while, since I'm not going to disclose my salary.