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This mythical "programmer that can't program" myth has disrupted the hiring process... It's not a myth.

by rdouble 16y ago

makmanalp 16y ago
> It's not a myth. I refute your argument merely by stating the exact opposite.
agentultra 16y ago
I'll admit it's pure speculation on my part. I have a hard time believing that ninety-some-odd percent of applicants believe they can blatantly lie their way into a position they are clearly not qualified for. How embarrassing is it to be caught in such a lie? Not every needs to be keenly self-aware to at least have an intuition about the limits and potential of their own capabilities... Maybe I'm just not cynical enough... update: and even if it were true, it's still a pain for qualified applicants to get through these draconian hiring practices.
- iron_ball 16y ago
  Well, remember that good applicants will only be applicants, per se, a few times before they land a job. Whereas bad applicants just keep buzzing around forever...
- InclinedPlane 16y ago
  It's not embarrassing at all typically. Failing at applying to a single position does not instantly cause the depths of your ignorance in programming fundamentals to be broadcast to the world. From my experience and observation it's generally very lucky if you get anything better than a 50:1 ratio from initial phone screen down to a hiring offer.
CoryMathews 16y ago
So many of the programmers I graduated college with were only book smart. They couldn't problem solve or do anything a book did not tell them how to do. They even had extremely high GPAs because they would memorize so much information for each test. It was only the project classes that hurt their GPA, sadly my college didn't have enough of those. Its those kind of "programmers" that these tests are designed to find. A lot of companies seem to take it to far, as if to brag that their entry tests are harder, possibly even deterring the people they want.

This mythical "programmer that can't program" myth has disrupted the hiring process... It's not a myth.

by rdouble 16y ago

This mythical "programmer that can't program" myth has disrupted the hiring process... It's not a myth.

makmanalp 16y ago

> It's not a myth. I refute your argument merely by stating the exact opposite.

agentultra 16y ago

I'll admit it's pure speculation on my part. I have a hard time believing that ninety-some-odd percent of applicants believe they can blatantly lie their way into a position they are clearly not qualified for. How embarrassing is it to be caught in such a lie? Not every needs to be keenly self-aware to at least have an intuition about the limits and potential of their own capabilities... Maybe I'm just not cynical enough... update: and even if it were true, it's still a pain for qualified applicants to get through these draconian hiring practices.

iron_ball 16y ago
Well, remember that good applicants will only be applicants, per se, a few times before they land a job. Whereas bad applicants just keep buzzing around forever...
InclinedPlane 16y ago
It's not embarrassing at all typically. Failing at applying to a single position does not instantly cause the depths of your ignorance in programming fundamentals to be broadcast to the world. From my experience and observation it's generally very lucky if you get anything better than a 50:1 ratio from initial phone screen down to a hiring offer.

CoryMathews 16y ago

So many of the programmers I graduated college with were only book smart. They couldn't problem solve or do anything a book did not tell them how to do. They even had extremely high GPAs because they would memorize so much information for each test. It was only the project classes that hurt their GPA, sadly my college didn't have enough of those. Its those kind of "programmers" that these tests are designed to find. A lot of companies seem to take it to far, as if to brag that their entry tests are harder, possibly even deterring the people they want.