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This is literally the only way I've gotten job offers. I'm a very competent programmer, but when I'm asked to solve some silly puzzle with someone staring over

This is literally the only way I've gotten job offers. I'm a very competent programmer, but when I'm asked to solve some silly puzzle with someone staring over my shoulder, I freeze under pressure and can not think at all. Luckily not everyone thinks solving leetcode problems is a good way to hire.

um304 10y ago
Exactly my case. My startup is ending and I'm looking for work. Wonder if there's a way to look up companies that hire by giving assignments.
- Vekz 10y ago
  Your next startup could be a job board that specializes in this. I'd subscribe
  - dimino 10y ago
    This article is written by (and marketing for) someone who created that job board.
- zzzcpan 10y ago
  Be persuasive, ask for an assignment. Everything is negotiable.
- Rapzid 10y ago
  If the company is large enough there may be interview process reviews on glass door.
usloth_wandows 10y ago
If you can't code under pressure, you aren't a very competent programmer. Real world projects come with high pressure scenarios for software engineers. Code monkeys may be able to get away with low pressure, minimally impactful projects.
- 67726e 10y ago
  I can't code with people staring at me, talking to me, asking me questions. If you can more power to you, but if that reflects the nature of the job then they can take that one and shove it. It simply doesn't reflect reality.
  - totalZero 10y ago
    How about when you're alone, it's 3am, you haven't slept much in the past three days, and you have a 10am deadline to meet?
    - wasted_intel 10y ago
      Your job sounds terrible.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
    - kasey_junk 10y ago
      You almost certainly tell the project manager that they have dramatically failed at their job. You go to bed and come back when you aren't going to make stupid errors.
    - ethbro 10y ago
      That is a thing that happens, yes. If that happens consistently for months at a time, then as said the PM is severely fucking up. And if that wasn't communicated as an expectation before compensation was negotiated, then the company is probably fucking up. As the quip goes "If a race doesn't have an end, then it's a death march."
    - 67726e 10y ago
      A) Been there, done that, told my boss to fuck off. I've been on week long coding binges where I maybe got a cumulative 10 hours of sleep. This is a fundamentally different kind of pressure on yourself than having someone watching over your should or giving you a stare down on Skype while badgering you the whole time. B) If you're working a job like this you're working a shitty job and ought to quit. Unless you're maybe hacking the Gibson to stop some oil tankers from going belly up there is hardly a reason in our industry for this kind of shit.
nolite 10y ago
I've been in situations together with clients deploying a product, them presenting it for their managers, orpreparing for a big demonstration, and something goes wrong due to some unforeseen environmental factor you couldn't have imagined or predicted, and breaks in a way you don't expect, despite the weeks of testing you've done. You've got your main client staring over your shoulder, arms crossed saying fix it, and every two minutes asking "is it fixed yet?" You damn well better be able to code under pressure... And like a freaking ninja
- aianus 10y ago
  Most tech jobs aren't like that. If the job you're hiring for is one of the few that involves high-pressure coding in front of strangers, then by all means test for that.
  - edblarney 10y ago
    If you are coding 'in front of customers on the spot' - you at the wrong company :) Coding under pressure is quite different from coding on a white-board in an interview, often on an arcane CS problem.
    - ellisv 10y ago
      > If you are coding 'in front of customers on the spot' - you at the wrong company :) Or a procrastinator ;) "Hi, one coffee please." "Sure, just one minute. Ok, first I'll pip install stripe…"
- keithnz 10y ago
  if that's common then it's a reasonable criteria for the position, sure. That hardly ever comes up in my work environments, so I'd be happy with an engineer who is awesome 99.999% of the time when they aren't in this position.
- Noseshine 10y ago
  I can present to audiences pretty easily, I actually enjoy it. I also don't mind at all having a client watch what I'm doing. And yet, while I have no trouble doing interviews - having worked as a freelancer that would have been pretty bad - the situations are not comparable even for me. I loathe interviews. Fortunately a lot of clients, and I've had several major companies, had people hiring me without any of the usual stuff based on a gut feeling, I had to answer silly irrelevant technical questions only twice. And once I even failed "explain a right join" - something surely everybody would be expected to know, and of course I do, but at that moment I blanked. I go the job anyway but it goes to show that even to me interviews are a very different and greater kind of stress than anything normal work can throw at me. Even if it looks the same, it isn't, not at all! The brain knows context. An interview situation is much more adversarial: They are looking out for reasons not to hire you, you are competing with others for the job and only one can get it! No such consideration on the job, unless the work environment is completely and ridiculously broken. When are you ever in a work situation where several people work on competing solutions and everybody else but the person who made the winning one is fired? At work you are working together, and to solve a problem, not to week you out of the pool.

um304 10y ago

Exactly my case. My startup is ending and I'm looking for work. Wonder if there's a way to look up companies that hire by giving assignments.

Vekz 10y ago
Your next startup could be a job board that specializes in this. I'd subscribe
- dimino 10y ago
  This article is written by (and marketing for) someone who created that job board.
zzzcpan 10y ago
Be persuasive, ask for an assignment. Everything is negotiable.
Rapzid 10y ago
If the company is large enough there may be interview process reviews on glass door.

usloth_wandows 10y ago

If you can't code under pressure, you aren't a very competent programmer. Real world projects come with high pressure scenarios for software engineers. Code monkeys may be able to get away with low pressure, minimally impactful projects.

67726e 10y ago
I can't code with people staring at me, talking to me, asking me questions. If you can more power to you, but if that reflects the nature of the job then they can take that one and shove it. It simply doesn't reflect reality.
- totalZero 10y ago
  How about when you're alone, it's 3am, you haven't slept much in the past three days, and you have a 10am deadline to meet?
  - wasted_intel 10y ago
    Your job sounds terrible.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  - kasey_junk 10y ago
    You almost certainly tell the project manager that they have dramatically failed at their job. You go to bed and come back when you aren't going to make stupid errors.
  - ethbro 10y ago
    That is a thing that happens, yes. If that happens consistently for months at a time, then as said the PM is severely fucking up. And if that wasn't communicated as an expectation before compensation was negotiated, then the company is probably fucking up. As the quip goes "If a race doesn't have an end, then it's a death march."
  - 67726e 10y ago
    A) Been there, done that, told my boss to fuck off. I've been on week long coding binges where I maybe got a cumulative 10 hours of sleep. This is a fundamentally different kind of pressure on yourself than having someone watching over your should or giving you a stare down on Skype while badgering you the whole time. B) If you're working a job like this you're working a shitty job and ought to quit. Unless you're maybe hacking the Gibson to stop some oil tankers from going belly up there is hardly a reason in our industry for this kind of shit.

nolite 10y ago

I've been in situations together with clients deploying a product, them presenting it for their managers, orpreparing for a big demonstration, and something goes wrong due to some unforeseen environmental factor you couldn't have imagined or predicted, and breaks in a way you don't expect, despite the weeks of testing you've done. You've got your main client staring over your shoulder, arms crossed saying fix it, and every two minutes asking "is it fixed yet?" You damn well better be able to code under pressure... And like a freaking ninja

aianus 10y ago
Most tech jobs aren't like that. If the job you're hiring for is one of the few that involves high-pressure coding in front of strangers, then by all means test for that.
- edblarney 10y ago
  If you are coding 'in front of customers on the spot' - you at the wrong company :) Coding under pressure is quite different from coding on a white-board in an interview, often on an arcane CS problem.
  - ellisv 10y ago
    > If you are coding 'in front of customers on the spot' - you at the wrong company :) Or a procrastinator ;) "Hi, one coffee please." "Sure, just one minute. Ok, first I'll pip install stripe…"
keithnz 10y ago
if that's common then it's a reasonable criteria for the position, sure. That hardly ever comes up in my work environments, so I'd be happy with an engineer who is awesome 99.999% of the time when they aren't in this position.
Noseshine 10y ago
I can present to audiences pretty easily, I actually enjoy it. I also don't mind at all having a client watch what I'm doing. And yet, while I have no trouble doing interviews - having worked as a freelancer that would have been pretty bad - the situations are not comparable even for me. I loathe interviews. Fortunately a lot of clients, and I've had several major companies, had people hiring me without any of the usual stuff based on a gut feeling, I had to answer silly irrelevant technical questions only twice. And once I even failed "explain a right join" - something surely everybody would be expected to know, and of course I do, but at that moment I blanked. I go the job anyway but it goes to show that even to me interviews are a very different and greater kind of stress than anything normal work can throw at me. Even if it looks the same, it isn't, not at all! The brain knows context. An interview situation is much more adversarial: They are looking out for reasons not to hire you, you are competing with others for the job and only one can get it! No such consideration on the job, unless the work environment is completely and ridiculously broken. When are you ever in a work situation where several people work on competing solutions and everybody else but the person who made the winning one is fired? At work you are working together, and to solve a problem, not to week you out of the pool.