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Been coding professionally since '99 - C/C++/C# until 2012, then Rails/React/Angular over the past 6 years. I guesstimate I've been on some 50 interviews. If

Been coding professionally since '99 - C/C++/C# until 2012, then Rails/React/Angular over the past 6 years. I guesstimate I've been on some 50 interviews. If anything I feel that things have gotten better, although this may be a difference between my former enterprise Windows-stack life vs. open source tech life. The main differences I see are: - Take homes are more prevalent... but I recall only one which has taken more than a half day, and that was fair as I was relatively new to Rails at the time. I actually like doing these for jobs I'm interested in as they give me an opportunity to flex my skills. - There's about a 50% chance that you get a CTCI type interview vs. a more pragmatic, what-you-experience-on-the-job type domain modeling, write out in code in Rails (or whatever framework being used) type of pairing. When I'm on the hiring side I focus on the latter and feel it's quite effective. When I was starting out you almost always got the CTCI type. I typically red-flag potential employers who don't sufficiently validate the skillset of potential hires. I've worked with plenty of people who were terrible, it's one of the reasons I transitioned to Rails.

zumu 9y ago
> I typically red-flag potential employers who doesn't sufficiently validate the skillset of potential hires. I'm beginning to take this to heart.
- jenscow 9y ago
  It's a positive signal of the quality of code + team. I sometimes ask if the rest of the team have taken this test (I was once told I was the first, and I'm the replacement)
nerraga 9y ago
Can you elaborate you that last statement? Are Rails developers less terrible than the C/C#/C++ people with whom you’ve worked? If so, what are your thoughts on why that may be?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- brandall10 9y ago
  From my experience Rails devs tend to care more about the quality of their work/impact of their changes on teammates, read dev blogs/books, go to meetups, care about testing/documentation, ways to source good candidates and working with good people. Basically they just care more about doing good work. I must underscore though that my impressions are tempered by the fact that I primarily worked in enterprisey Windows-stack jobs, but that's also more typical - you're not going to find many modern startups going w/ .NET or Java. The tools themselves aren't really the problem, it's the implied culture. Why is this? Probably because of the goals of each. .NET and Java were an outpouring of efforts from the 90s to harness issues of scale on enterprise systems. It's a pre vs. post information age phenomena, open source folks are going to be more of a hobbyist mindset.
NewEntryHN 9y ago
I'm curious about the transition from C/C++/C# to Rails/React/Angular. What did make you switch?
- brandall10 9y ago
  I read a book called "The Passionate Programmer" in 2009 that turned me on to what was happening in the open source community at the time. It was the first I had heard of Rails, Ycombinator/Hacker News, alot of things really. During the last few years doing Windows-stack work I was a top performer at the company I was working with, had gotten two relatively recent promotions, turned down an op going into management, and was so unhappy that I considered leaving software altogether. Transitioning to open source stack work 'lifted the cloud' - so to speak - and reinvigorated my love of programming.

zumu 9y ago

> I typically red-flag potential employers who doesn't sufficiently validate the skillset of potential hires. I'm beginning to take this to heart.

jenscow 9y ago
It's a positive signal of the quality of code + team. I sometimes ask if the rest of the team have taken this test (I was once told I was the first, and I'm the replacement)

nerraga 9y ago

Can you elaborate you that last statement? Are Rails developers less terrible than the C/C#/C++ people with whom you’ve worked? If so, what are your thoughts on why that may be?

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
brandall10 9y ago
From my experience Rails devs tend to care more about the quality of their work/impact of their changes on teammates, read dev blogs/books, go to meetups, care about testing/documentation, ways to source good candidates and working with good people. Basically they just care more about doing good work. I must underscore though that my impressions are tempered by the fact that I primarily worked in enterprisey Windows-stack jobs, but that's also more typical - you're not going to find many modern startups going w/ .NET or Java. The tools themselves aren't really the problem, it's the implied culture. Why is this? Probably because of the goals of each. .NET and Java were an outpouring of efforts from the 90s to harness issues of scale on enterprise systems. It's a pre vs. post information age phenomena, open source folks are going to be more of a hobbyist mindset.

NewEntryHN 9y ago

I'm curious about the transition from C/C++/C# to Rails/React/Angular. What did make you switch?

brandall10 9y ago
I read a book called "The Passionate Programmer" in 2009 that turned me on to what was happening in the open source community at the time. It was the first I had heard of Rails, Ycombinator/Hacker News, alot of things really. During the last few years doing Windows-stack work I was a top performer at the company I was working with, had gotten two relatively recent promotions, turned down an op going into management, and was so unhappy that I considered leaving software altogether. Transitioning to open source stack work 'lifted the cloud' - so to speak - and reinvigorated my love of programming.