5 ms·

or the codebase from a previous position That was a little startling. Other than open source companies, how many employers would be happy to know their code i

or the codebase from a previous position That was a little startling. Other than open source companies, how many employers would be happy to know their code is being shown off to potential future employers?

forgottenacc57 9y ago
Presumably this company is happy for you to take their codebase and walk your next potential employer through it. Probably their competition.
- marcgg 9y ago
  I don't think that there much one can learn by looking at a couple of classes. On our end we let the candidate decide based on their previous company's policies.
marcgg 9y ago
Yes, some people prefer not to share this and it is totally fine by us. It's really up to the candidate to decide in accordance to the previous company's policies. Personally I wouldn't mind if a previous employee would like to demonstrate his/her work using the codebase - as long as they're not applying to a competing firm :) We also have a lot of people that created their own companies or interesting side projects that will present this.
_asummers 9y ago
That whole section needs an alternate. Enough people are NDA etc. bound that you're going to have qualified people who literally can't do this step. Many people don't have large software written in the public domain or do not have anything showable because they don't have access to the source anymore. It'd be awesome if everyone had enterprise level software on GitHub, but that seems an unfair requirement to show technical competency for closed software.
- marcgg 9y ago
  We accept any kind of code, be it a kata made during a workshop or a side project... really we just want to talk about code that the candidate wrote previously. It doesn't need to be large to have interesting tradeoffs made
  - _asummers 9y ago
    That ignores the class of FOSS people I like to call the "fixers", the ones that will spelunk a code base because they have a problem, find the 10 line fix that fixes their issue and never come back to the project again. Those 10 lines were probably very useful but doesn't show any larger design ability, despite that being a thing the candidate may be very good at, or large enough to garner a gauge on how that person sees code. Also consider the people who have never contributed to open source because they leave their work at the door. This is all your prerogative on how you want to run this, but I was personally put off reading that section, despite having a good idea what you're looking for. out of it
    - marcgg 9y ago
      Yes it's true that it doesn't fit all use cases. However I would see looking at a few of the fixes you're talking about as an interesting technical interview.
  - CodeMage 9y ago
    Why? You already gave the candidate a "take home assignment". That assignment should involve interesting trade-offs. If it doesn't, tweak it until it does. Why not discuss that code? I'm the kind of guy who still likes to code on the side, at home, for fun, after all these years, but I'm also aware that not everyone is like that. Maybe that's one of your filters -- maybe you're looking for people who prefer coding to be 90% of their lives -- but that would be a big red flag in my book. I've seen too many companies who think that they are entitled to employees who will give them everything for next-to-nothing in return.
    - 9y ago
JustSomeNobody 9y ago
Yeah this caught me off guard. Had to read it again. I'm pretty sure I'm not legally allowed to possess the code from previous employment contracts.
- thesmallestcat 9y ago
  Not to mention that it's basic programmer ethics, the person who paid you owns the code.

forgottenacc57 9y ago

Presumably this company is happy for you to take their codebase and walk your next potential employer through it. Probably their competition.

marcgg 9y ago
I don't think that there much one can learn by looking at a couple of classes. On our end we let the candidate decide based on their previous company's policies.

marcgg 9y ago

Yes, some people prefer not to share this and it is totally fine by us. It's really up to the candidate to decide in accordance to the previous company's policies. Personally I wouldn't mind if a previous employee would like to demonstrate his/her work using the codebase - as long as they're not applying to a competing firm :) We also have a lot of people that created their own companies or interesting side projects that will present this.

_asummers 9y ago

That whole section needs an alternate. Enough people are NDA etc. bound that you're going to have qualified people who literally can't do this step. Many people don't have large software written in the public domain or do not have anything showable because they don't have access to the source anymore. It'd be awesome if everyone had enterprise level software on GitHub, but that seems an unfair requirement to show technical competency for closed software.

marcgg 9y ago
We accept any kind of code, be it a kata made during a workshop or a side project... really we just want to talk about code that the candidate wrote previously. It doesn't need to be large to have interesting tradeoffs made
- _asummers 9y ago
  That ignores the class of FOSS people I like to call the "fixers", the ones that will spelunk a code base because they have a problem, find the 10 line fix that fixes their issue and never come back to the project again. Those 10 lines were probably very useful but doesn't show any larger design ability, despite that being a thing the candidate may be very good at, or large enough to garner a gauge on how that person sees code. Also consider the people who have never contributed to open source because they leave their work at the door. This is all your prerogative on how you want to run this, but I was personally put off reading that section, despite having a good idea what you're looking for. out of it
  - marcgg 9y ago
    Yes it's true that it doesn't fit all use cases. However I would see looking at a few of the fixes you're talking about as an interesting technical interview.
- CodeMage 9y ago
  Why? You already gave the candidate a "take home assignment". That assignment should involve interesting trade-offs. If it doesn't, tweak it until it does. Why not discuss that code? I'm the kind of guy who still likes to code on the side, at home, for fun, after all these years, but I'm also aware that not everyone is like that. Maybe that's one of your filters -- maybe you're looking for people who prefer coding to be 90% of their lives -- but that would be a big red flag in my book. I've seen too many companies who think that they are entitled to employees who will give them everything for next-to-nothing in return.
  - 9y ago

JustSomeNobody 9y ago

Yeah this caught me off guard. Had to read it again. I'm pretty sure I'm not legally allowed to possess the code from previous employment contracts.

thesmallestcat 9y ago
Not to mention that it's basic programmer ethics, the person who paid you owns the code.