2 ms·

> when organizations want to avoid the appearance of IP taint So we usually try to talk about what they're learning on their spare time, any personal projects,

> when organizations want to avoid the appearance of IP taint So we usually try to talk about what they're learning on their spare time, any personal projects, any cool technology they're looking to learn... then follow it up with what have you done so far to start on this, any small toy projects on this new technology. It's a weird organization because aside from COVID-19, we've had very little turnover (most people are with us 3+ year with an average of 7 years) so we've kinda changed up hiring a little bit over time.

neilv 6y ago
I currently think that's trickier than I used to. I'd like to mention a few thoughts on my mind on this idea in general (not criticisms, nor making assumptions about the nuances of how you do things). I live to work, and have had a bunch of open source involvement, and have had serious side interests, so those interviewer questions are to my advantage, when I'm the candidate employee/cofounder. But a lot of candidates will have families that take up all their non-work time. (IME, some of them are among the best engineers.) And those candidates with families might've heard that many interviewers will discriminate against them for that, wanting people who can regularly put in 60hr+ weeks and surge to 80hr+ of grunt coding. So, I figure they might cringe at talking about how they're spending their "spare" time. I'm absolutely not going to discriminate against them, nor do I want them to fear that they might be discriminated against, or feel alienated because they keep getting questions like that in interviews. And for the people who're pursuing cool technology through their employer, I'm really hoping it doesn't sound like they prioritized adding this year's unproven hot framework/buzzword to their resume, over the success/risk of an employer's project. :)
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
  There's nothing wrong with focusing on family. The only people who had serious issues were those who said they were not learning anything at their current and had no interest in learning anything new.
  - neilv 6y ago
    Yeah, most developer jobs I've seen require constantly learning new things. And I don't think I'd like working very long somewhere that didn't need people to keep learning -- not so much learning the flavor of the month yet-another-framework, but learning a breadth of things, and picking up whatever is needed. I actually emphasized that in a draft job post recently. BTW, just to be clear where I'm coming from about families, I think people can focus successfully on both work and family, at the same time. (If they're working in an organization/projects that don't end up wasting so much engineer-time that they think they need people who can be typing 80hr/wk.)

neilv 6y ago

I currently think that's trickier than I used to. I'd like to mention a few thoughts on my mind on this idea in general (not criticisms, nor making assumptions about the nuances of how you do things). I live to work, and have had a bunch of open source involvement, and have had serious side interests, so those interviewer questions are to my advantage, when I'm the candidate employee/cofounder. But a lot of candidates will have families that take up all their non-work time. (IME, some of them are among the best engineers.) And those candidates with families might've heard that many interviewers will discriminate against them for that, wanting people who can regularly put in 60hr+ weeks and surge to 80hr+ of grunt coding. So, I figure they might cringe at talking about how they're spending their "spare" time. I'm absolutely not going to discriminate against them, nor do I want them to fear that they might be discriminated against, or feel alienated because they keep getting questions like that in interviews. And for the people who're pursuing cool technology through their employer, I'm really hoping it doesn't sound like they prioritized adding this year's unproven hot framework/buzzword to their resume, over the success/risk of an employer's project. :)

WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
There's nothing wrong with focusing on family. The only people who had serious issues were those who said they were not learning anything at their current and had no interest in learning anything new.
- neilv 6y ago
  Yeah, most developer jobs I've seen require constantly learning new things. And I don't think I'd like working very long somewhere that didn't need people to keep learning -- not so much learning the flavor of the month yet-another-framework, but learning a breadth of things, and picking up whatever is needed. I actually emphasized that in a draft job post recently. BTW, just to be clear where I'm coming from about families, I think people can focus successfully on both work and family, at the same time. (If they're working in an organization/projects that don't end up wasting so much engineer-time that they think they need people who can be typing 80hr/wk.)