3 ms·

How does that even happen? Those are things you use all the time in C#.. Maybe it's just working at a mediocre job(s) that never really stress skill?

cmdrfred 10y ago
Is that really skill? I work in IT and would like a development job but have never had one. I can easily pull off a fizz buzz in any lanuage I've worked with. Am I missing something?
- droopyEyelids 10y ago
  What you missed: You aren't interviewing for developer positions.
  - cmdrfred 10y ago
    Is it different? I mean the fizz buzz I've seen only requires the use of conditional statements and a understanding of mathematical operators. What kind of programming job would leave you unfamiliar with those?
    - droopyEyelids 10y ago
      I'm saying if you're in IT, you can do fizzbuzz, and you want a development job but don't have one — then this all adds up to mean you haven't been applying for development jobs.
      - cmdrfred 10y ago
        Ahh my mistake then. I have been applying but maybe not as much as I should have. I'll send out some more.
        droopyEyelids 10y ago
        Send out more and fight with confidence to make them hire you. You're in the IT ghetto right now don't let their prejudices keep you there- you're every bit as smart and capable as anyone who happened to start on the developer track.
  - mjolk 10y ago
    Fizz buzz is a trivial exercise; if someone that claims to have worked as a software developer can't do fizz buzz, something doesn't add up. How was she able to do her work without understanding basic things?
- GordonS 10y ago
  No, it's not. I was interviewing for a position in India; I just use such basic tests as a filter, so I can quickly weed out the wrong kind of candidate. See my other comment here for more: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13327100 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13327100
manyxcxi 10y ago
Likely: She's been working at the same place for most of (if not all of those 10 years) and she's just basically keeping the home-grown system running and punching out some minor features. She probably got that Senior title simply because she'd put in enough time at the company. Maybe they're on .NET 4. Maybe. If I see a technical candidate resume that has a long stretch (5+ years) at the same company and that company isn't primarily a technical one, huge red flags go up because the previously mentioned 'Senior' candidate is who generally come out of these situations. IF I get past their resume they're going to spend a lot more time telling me how they stay up to date with the world than a candidate otherwise would.
- caminante 10y ago
  If I see a technical candidate resume that has a long stretch (5+ years) at the same company and that company isn't primarily a technical one, huge red flags go up I'm a fan of this heuristic. You're forced to evolve more if you work in a profit center v. cost center (i.e. technical candidate at non-tech company).
GordonS 10y ago
I was interviewing for a position in India. Many developers in India (especially those that work for the big outsourcers) work on overly-large teams and work only on ridiculously specific portions of code. You might have one person that only does fluent mappings for the ORM, another that only makes changes to domain models, another that only does changes to view models... etc. I do extremely basic programming tasks (no more difficult than fizz-buzz) to quickly weed out that sort of candidate.

cmdrfred 10y ago

Is that really skill? I work in IT and would like a development job but have never had one. I can easily pull off a fizz buzz in any lanuage I've worked with. Am I missing something?

droopyEyelids 10y ago
What you missed: You aren't interviewing for developer positions.
- cmdrfred 10y ago
  Is it different? I mean the fizz buzz I've seen only requires the use of conditional statements and a understanding of mathematical operators. What kind of programming job would leave you unfamiliar with those?
  - droopyEyelids 10y ago
    I'm saying if you're in IT, you can do fizzbuzz, and you want a development job but don't have one — then this all adds up to mean you haven't been applying for development jobs.
    - cmdrfred 10y ago
      Ahh my mistake then. I have been applying but maybe not as much as I should have. I'll send out some more.
      - droopyEyelids 10y ago
        Send out more and fight with confidence to make them hire you. You're in the IT ghetto right now don't let their prejudices keep you there- you're every bit as smart and capable as anyone who happened to start on the developer track.
- mjolk 10y ago
  Fizz buzz is a trivial exercise; if someone that claims to have worked as a software developer can't do fizz buzz, something doesn't add up. How was she able to do her work without understanding basic things?
GordonS 10y ago
No, it's not. I was interviewing for a position in India; I just use such basic tests as a filter, so I can quickly weed out the wrong kind of candidate. See my other comment here for more: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13327100 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13327100

manyxcxi 10y ago

Likely: She's been working at the same place for most of (if not all of those 10 years) and she's just basically keeping the home-grown system running and punching out some minor features. She probably got that Senior title simply because she'd put in enough time at the company. Maybe they're on .NET 4. Maybe. If I see a technical candidate resume that has a long stretch (5+ years) at the same company and that company isn't primarily a technical one, huge red flags go up because the previously mentioned 'Senior' candidate is who generally come out of these situations. IF I get past their resume they're going to spend a lot more time telling me how they stay up to date with the world than a candidate otherwise would.

caminante 10y ago
If I see a technical candidate resume that has a long stretch (5+ years) at the same company and that company isn't primarily a technical one, huge red flags go up I'm a fan of this heuristic. You're forced to evolve more if you work in a profit center v. cost center (i.e. technical candidate at non-tech company).

GordonS 10y ago

I was interviewing for a position in India. Many developers in India (especially those that work for the big outsourcers) work on overly-large teams and work only on ridiculously specific portions of code. You might have one person that only does fluent mappings for the ORM, another that only makes changes to domain models, another that only does changes to view models... etc. I do extremely basic programming tasks (no more difficult than fizz-buzz) to quickly weed out that sort of candidate.