3 ms·

Eh. As much as we like to complain about it tech is still one of the most meritocratic fields out there. If you can code you can get jobs. And as someone who's

by ng12 10y ago

Eh. As much as we like to complain about it tech is still one of the most meritocratic fields out there. If you can code you can get jobs. And as someone who's done a couple hundred interviews I don't really care what's on someone's resume. If there is a correlation between a good resume and good coding skills it's pretty weak.

HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago
I can concur with that last part. One of the strongest developers I've ever hired had one of the worst resumes. If it weren't for the fact that he had a friend on the team who vouched for him, we'd have never bothered with the interview. I remember reading the resume then walking over to my boss's office to ask "why am I even wasting time phone screening this crap?" and getting the answer "Steve knows him and says he's pretty good. Cut it short if he's not."
kafkaesq 10y ago
As much as we like to complain about it tech is still one of the most meritocratic fields out there. Relatively meritocratic, yes. But at the same time, suffused with bullshit. In particular as regards to the (generally inflated and useless; and let's face it, nearly ubiquitous in tech position ads, even still) "N years of X" requirements that the commenter was referring to. And as someone who's done a couple hundred interviews I don't really care what's on someone's resume. So would you mind letting your HR people (you know, the ones who write the aforementioned position ad copy) in on this little secret? As in, just walk up and tell them sometime and say: "Actually, we don't really care if they have 5 years of Angular or 3 months. We just want someone who's good. Meanwhile these ads you're writing with these made-up and generally useless years of platform experience are turning away, in droves, the very species of developer -- hardcore generalists with solid fundamentals, both intellectually and coding-wise (in any language) -- that we're so desperately looking for." Or would that just confuse them?

by ng12 10y ago

HeyLaughingBoy 10y ago

I can concur with that last part. One of the strongest developers I've ever hired had one of the worst resumes. If it weren't for the fact that he had a friend on the team who vouched for him, we'd have never bothered with the interview. I remember reading the resume then walking over to my boss's office to ask "why am I even wasting time phone screening this crap?" and getting the answer "Steve knows him and says he's pretty good. Cut it short if he's not."

kafkaesq 10y ago

As much as we like to complain about it tech is still one of the most meritocratic fields out there. Relatively meritocratic, yes. But at the same time, suffused with bullshit. In particular as regards to the (generally inflated and useless; and let's face it, nearly ubiquitous in tech position ads, even still) "N years of X" requirements that the commenter was referring to. And as someone who's done a couple hundred interviews I don't really care what's on someone's resume. So would you mind letting your HR people (you know, the ones who write the aforementioned position ad copy) in on this little secret? As in, just walk up and tell them sometime and say: "Actually, we don't really care if they have 5 years of Angular or 3 months. We just want someone who's good. Meanwhile these ads you're writing with these made-up and generally useless years of platform experience are turning away, in droves, the very species of developer -- hardcore generalists with solid fundamentals, both intellectually and coding-wise (in any language) -- that we're so desperately looking for." Or would that just confuse them?