9 ms·

Getting noticed as a remote engineer

107 points by danielwbean 6y ago

peteretep 6y ago
Have we collectively forgiven Triplebyte for this yet: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23279837 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23279837 ?
- GhostVII 6y ago
  How is that relevant to this blog post? Do you think we should stop reading any posts hosted by triplebyte for a mistake they made months ago and didn't even roll out?
  - peteretep 6y ago
    > How is that relevant to this blog post? The blog post is marketing fluff
- w-j-w 6y ago
  They handled the fallout very well. Completely rolled it back and gave a heartfelt apology that actually just said sorry. I think we should forgive them, as long as the good behavior continues.
- nfriedly 6y ago
  I have
- 29athrowaway 6y ago
  I don't trust Triplebyte. I don't think it's in the best interest of developers to deal with an intermediary. What you posted is only one example of what can go wrong. Having a decentralized job market for developers is the way to go.
- hyper_reality 6y ago
  Can't we assess this article on it's own merits instead? It's offering advice that is completely independent from past scandals on the platform it's hosted on. From the article, I thought this advice hit home the most: "The problem is that lack of engagement in meetings is often interpreted as apathy or a general lack of engagement in your work, even in cases where that's the furthest thing from the truth." Remote workers need to be more persistent in getting involved and speaking up where they can, otherwise they can easily recede into the background where colleagues are left wondering if they are participating as much as others - even when they are working just as hard, or even harder.
  - WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
    > Can't we assess this article on it's own merits instead? Nope, they doxxed everyone and only backpedaled when they got caught.
    - Thorrez 6y ago
      Did they actually dox anyone? I thought they planned to, but ended up not doing it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23303037 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23303037
  - cinquemb 6y ago
    > "…The problem is that lack of engagement in meetings is often interpreted as apathy or a general lack of engagement in your work…" > Remote workers need to be more persistent in getting involved and speaking up where they can, otherwise they can easily recede into the background where colleagues are left wondering if they are participating as much as others Or one can try to stay away from working at companies where "engagement" in meetings or work is conflated with actual results that one is responsible for delivering? Probably goes against the some of the ethos of the need to drink the local flavor of the koolaid and sing the $COMPANY hymns with ones colleges…
- ThePadawan 6y ago
  I haven't forgiven them for making me sign up to discover that "remote" means "remote, US-only", then making deleting my account a pain in the ass (you need a password for that - if you sign up using social SSO, you don't have one.)
- ignoramous 6y ago
  Startup School ran a "skill test" once, for founders, in association with triplebyte. In exchange for something very trivial ("YC interview") you now give them the license to judge your "skills" for a lifetime. Even if not that, it seemed like a very inappropriate, unnecessary, dishonest bait. Yeah, no thank you very much. https://www.startupschool.org/posts/34082 https://www.startupschool.org/posts/34082
whycombagator 6y ago
> Use Slack as your water cooler > Did you recently read an interesting article about how ML could solve the pandemic? > Share This Stuff On Slack Shows a picture of him messaging himself on Slack (you can tell by the "Jot something down" placeholder text) Edit: all the examples are that way, it seems. Overall some decent advice, though I don't necessarily agree with all of the points. Such as sharing news articles aka reposting HN in random channels throughout the company Slack. Or coffee breaks outside of office/work hours, how about just virtual happy hours _during_ work hours or something. Or grab a coffee in the morning during work, you know - when most people usually consume caffeinated beverages Also, doesn't this guy just work at Triplebyte blogging/interviewing people? His Linkedin says he's a technical interviewer at Triplebyte. When was the last time he remote engineered anywhere?
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
  > Shows a picture of him messaging himself on Slack (you can tell by the "Jot something down" placeholder text) LOL, fake it until you make it.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
jakebasile 6y ago
I switched to fully remote work 2.5 years ago, and my tips are somewhat similar. All of these things have positively contributed to both my own well-being and job satisfaction, and they've been positively mentioned to me by higher ups in reviews and such. I didn't start these things with that intention but it has been a welcome side benefit - I started to do all this because working remotely left me feeling isolated and lonely. Now, things are pretty good and I can't really imagine going back to work in an office! - Use Slack for water cooler talk, but not just "on brand" links like articles about software. Make or join a #videogames, #movies, #music, and/or #photography channel and talk with people outside your team. If it makes sense, some of these hobby channels can have little activities or contests. Our photography channel runs an inconsistently updated photography "contest", but mostly we just share our favorite shots and talk about gear we can't afford. - Have a team happy hour about once every other week, during company time. We do ours on a Friday, just after 1pm for me (central time). It's late enough that many people are ready to relax a bit before the weekend but early enough to let the people on the west coast join. Just grab a drink (hard or soft) and talk about stuff! - Do activities after hours with coworkers, if they're open to it. I run a bi-weekly movie night (on weeks we don't have the happy hour) and invite everyone on the team to come. Frankly, it's usually only a couple regulars, but those that come seem to enjoy it and it's really improved team camaraderie. On some nights we switch it for a game night. Among Us is a newer game that is absolutely perfect for this.
- cvhashim 6y ago
  > I run a bi-weekly movie night (on weeks we don't have the happy hour) and invite everyone on the team to come How does this work? You guys meet up in person?
  - jakebasile 6y ago
    We just watch the same movie at home, and sit in discord for light discussion/jokes. I just count down to press play so we're all somewhat synced up. It's close enough.
    - est31 6y ago
nelsondev 6y ago
The article missed an easy one; turn on your webcam.
- corrius 6y ago
  +100
ficklepickle 6y ago
Ugh. So basically, I'm doomed. I'm on the spectrum and have no interest/ability for social posturing. I absolutely destroyed the triplebyte front end technical test and was FastTrack-ed. Then I received zero interest, twice, despite trying to express my interest to companies. Both pre/post covid. Right now I'm feeling extremely discouraged and frankly exhausted. Just had a phone interview for a local (Vancouver) startup. The outsourced HR person (blankslate partners) didn't even call me as scheduled, nor provide me with a number, nor respond to my email, until trying to gas light me hours later saying there must be a problem with the phone lines. I applied for a Vue contract, to be bait and switched to a platform (toptal) only to be faced with a ridiculous algorithms test. For the front end, which is even more bizarre. No wonder they can't find Vue devs. Everyone else just doesn't even get back to me. So I'm stuck taking whatever insane contracts come along. Right now I have one where they want a visual programming environment plus basically a WYSIWYG survey creator in a week, with no specs, no design and no API. Turns out there's no back end and it just needs to dupe investors I guess. Don't worry though, there's some terrible, uncommented existing code that is far worse than starting from scratch. I'm technically very adept, I learn very quickly and I'm always pleasant and polite. Every contract I have ever taken on has been a smashing success. I have great reviews from people I have worked with. I rarely complain but I'm just really having a hard moment. Just the act of writing a cover letter is emotionally and mentally exhausting. The mental gymnastics I have to perform to try and figure out what people are actually expecting and how my words will be misinterpreted are truly exhausting. I just love programming. It's given me a purpose and I have a knack for it. I hoped it would help me find a role in society, but right now I'm not sure. Everyone talks a big game about diversity but I've yet to see it in action. I've had very experienced people look at my resume, and said it was good. Of course I'm going to keep trying. I just needed to let that out.
- achempion 6y ago
  I understand what you're talking about. The interview stage might be upsetting for quite a while but it's over when you find a right company. Just a reminder that you could create you own company (consulting or product) to exclude hiring interviews and cover letters from your life completely.
- 6y ago
totorovirus 6y ago
Kinda reminds me of getting more followers on instagram
richardARPANET 6y ago
The suggestion of filling code with "Created by Bob" and other pointless comments is not a good idea.
- hinkley 6y ago
  I have found that when you feel the need to use an inline comment for a TODO or to explain why a line of code seems out of place but isn’t, adding your name to it helps people figure out what’s up. In particular, old TODOs can be quite cryptic. If the code has morphed enough, and your coworkers have poor VCS discipline, tracking the author down can be challenging.
a_imho 6y ago
This is super cringe and is not even effective. Want to get a raise/promotion? Apply for a new job.
- hinkley 6y ago
  I had a coworker who’d get a hair cut, wear a suit to work and take a long lunch whenever he wanted a raise.
jskdvsksnb 6y ago
I work with someone who does all these things aggressively: super polished code, always talking in slack, always talking in meetings. My impression is that he doesn't actually produce a lot of code, but he's very impressive to management because he's constantly giving his opinion and overcommunicating. I find it insufferable.
GoToRO 6y ago
Yeah... no! None of the people evaluating my work ever open git. So it’s all gossip. Don’t be naive thinking that coleagues will praise you or that any manager knows how to look at code in git. If you write code that is that good you will be considered a threat by your coleagues and by the manager.
fxtentacle 6y ago
More like: "Getting noticed if being doxed and then shuffled into a mediocre job are your thing" The article is clearly marketing. Advice #1 is effectively just saying "don't suck". Obviously you should be producing good, useful, readable, and maintained code. That's not the path to getting noticed, but more like a prerequisite for not getting fired. Which the author apparently did not follow. Why does this need 3rd party JavaScript just to display the background behind the source code example? With uBlock Origin, it's white text on white background... And in line with my impression of that article, here's the "amazing" jobs that wait for you when you succeed with TripleByte's advice: https://triplebyte.com/jobs https://triplebyte.com/jobs It's all about becoming a tiny cog in a big machine.
- mratsim 6y ago
  20 jobs at Coinbase, 1 at Facebook, 2 at TrueCar in the front page. Amazing diversity.
  - sJ646U9k6c6gME9 6y ago
    I’ve interviewed with both Facebook and Coinbase via Triplebyte. Guess what? Both forced me through a complete gauntlet of interviews and disregarded Triplebyte’s report entirely. So what is the point of Triplebyte in all of this?
    - opencl 6y ago
      I think the point is getting an interview at companies that would otherwise completely ignore you if you applied through the normal process. Probably most valuable for people who do well on the tests but don't have a particularly impressive looking resume/CV.
      - thdc 6y ago
        Personal experience: I went through Triplebyte personally a few years back - twice. I was able to pass their evaluation/interview without any prep and got in to the matching phase. The first time: I got matched with one company which ended up hiring someone before I could interview and another company that declined to go further after a phone screen. The second time: I wasn't matched with anything. The only reason I ended up trying to go through them was because I had a virtually nonexistent response rate through the normal application process while looking for my first job and I thought it would help me get through the initial resume filtering stage which is where I assume I get dropped all the time.
beauzero 6y ago
Do not use Slack/Teams as your water cooler. Don't add the clutter...please. Look how popular Yammer isn't. That is water cooler talk for Slack and Teams.

107 points by danielwbean 6y ago

Have we collectively forgiven Triplebyte for this yet: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23279837 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23279837 ?

GhostVII 6y ago
How is that relevant to this blog post? Do you think we should stop reading any posts hosted by triplebyte for a mistake they made months ago and didn't even roll out?
- peteretep 6y ago
  > How is that relevant to this blog post? The blog post is marketing fluff
w-j-w 6y ago
They handled the fallout very well. Completely rolled it back and gave a heartfelt apology that actually just said sorry. I think we should forgive them, as long as the good behavior continues.
nfriedly 6y ago
I have
29athrowaway 6y ago
I don't trust Triplebyte. I don't think it's in the best interest of developers to deal with an intermediary. What you posted is only one example of what can go wrong. Having a decentralized job market for developers is the way to go.
hyper_reality 6y ago
Can't we assess this article on it's own merits instead? It's offering advice that is completely independent from past scandals on the platform it's hosted on. From the article, I thought this advice hit home the most: "The problem is that lack of engagement in meetings is often interpreted as apathy or a general lack of engagement in your work, even in cases where that's the furthest thing from the truth." Remote workers need to be more persistent in getting involved and speaking up where they can, otherwise they can easily recede into the background where colleagues are left wondering if they are participating as much as others - even when they are working just as hard, or even harder.
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
  > Can't we assess this article on it's own merits instead? Nope, they doxxed everyone and only backpedaled when they got caught.
  - Thorrez 6y ago
    Did they actually dox anyone? I thought they planned to, but ended up not doing it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23303037 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23303037
- cinquemb 6y ago
  > "…The problem is that lack of engagement in meetings is often interpreted as apathy or a general lack of engagement in your work…" > Remote workers need to be more persistent in getting involved and speaking up where they can, otherwise they can easily recede into the background where colleagues are left wondering if they are participating as much as others Or one can try to stay away from working at companies where "engagement" in meetings or work is conflated with actual results that one is responsible for delivering? Probably goes against the some of the ethos of the need to drink the local flavor of the koolaid and sing the $COMPANY hymns with ones colleges…
ThePadawan 6y ago
I haven't forgiven them for making me sign up to discover that "remote" means "remote, US-only", then making deleting my account a pain in the ass (you need a password for that - if you sign up using social SSO, you don't have one.)
ignoramous 6y ago
Startup School ran a "skill test" once, for founders, in association with triplebyte. In exchange for something very trivial ("YC interview") you now give them the license to judge your "skills" for a lifetime. Even if not that, it seemed like a very inappropriate, unnecessary, dishonest bait. Yeah, no thank you very much. https://www.startupschool.org/posts/34082 https://www.startupschool.org/posts/34082

whycombagator 6y ago

> Use Slack as your water cooler > Did you recently read an interesting article about how ML could solve the pandemic? > Share This Stuff On Slack Shows a picture of him messaging himself on Slack (you can tell by the "Jot something down" placeholder text) Edit: all the examples are that way, it seems. Overall some decent advice, though I don't necessarily agree with all of the points. Such as sharing news articles aka reposting HN in random channels throughout the company Slack. Or coffee breaks outside of office/work hours, how about just virtual happy hours _during_ work hours or something. Or grab a coffee in the morning during work, you know - when most people usually consume caffeinated beverages Also, doesn't this guy just work at Triplebyte blogging/interviewing people? His Linkedin says he's a technical interviewer at Triplebyte. When was the last time he remote engineered anywhere?

WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago
> Shows a picture of him messaging himself on Slack (you can tell by the "Jot something down" placeholder text) LOL, fake it until you make it.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

jakebasile 6y ago

I switched to fully remote work 2.5 years ago, and my tips are somewhat similar. All of these things have positively contributed to both my own well-being and job satisfaction, and they've been positively mentioned to me by higher ups in reviews and such. I didn't start these things with that intention but it has been a welcome side benefit - I started to do all this because working remotely left me feeling isolated and lonely. Now, things are pretty good and I can't really imagine going back to work in an office! - Use Slack for water cooler talk, but not just "on brand" links like articles about software. Make or join a #videogames, #movies, #music, and/or #photography channel and talk with people outside your team. If it makes sense, some of these hobby channels can have little activities or contests. Our photography channel runs an inconsistently updated photography "contest", but mostly we just share our favorite shots and talk about gear we can't afford. - Have a team happy hour about once every other week, during company time. We do ours on a Friday, just after 1pm for me (central time). It's late enough that many people are ready to relax a bit before the weekend but early enough to let the people on the west coast join. Just grab a drink (hard or soft) and talk about stuff! - Do activities after hours with coworkers, if they're open to it. I run a bi-weekly movie night (on weeks we don't have the happy hour) and invite everyone on the team to come. Frankly, it's usually only a couple regulars, but those that come seem to enjoy it and it's really improved team camaraderie. On some nights we switch it for a game night. Among Us is a newer game that is absolutely perfect for this.

cvhashim 6y ago
> I run a bi-weekly movie night (on weeks we don't have the happy hour) and invite everyone on the team to come How does this work? You guys meet up in person?
- jakebasile 6y ago
  We just watch the same movie at home, and sit in discord for light discussion/jokes. I just count down to press play so we're all somewhat synced up. It's close enough.
  - est31 6y ago

nelsondev 6y ago

The article missed an easy one; turn on your webcam.

corrius 6y ago
+100

ficklepickle 6y ago

Ugh. So basically, I'm doomed. I'm on the spectrum and have no interest/ability for social posturing. I absolutely destroyed the triplebyte front end technical test and was FastTrack-ed. Then I received zero interest, twice, despite trying to express my interest to companies. Both pre/post covid. Right now I'm feeling extremely discouraged and frankly exhausted. Just had a phone interview for a local (Vancouver) startup. The outsourced HR person (blankslate partners) didn't even call me as scheduled, nor provide me with a number, nor respond to my email, until trying to gas light me hours later saying there must be a problem with the phone lines. I applied for a Vue contract, to be bait and switched to a platform (toptal) only to be faced with a ridiculous algorithms test. For the front end, which is even more bizarre. No wonder they can't find Vue devs. Everyone else just doesn't even get back to me. So I'm stuck taking whatever insane contracts come along. Right now I have one where they want a visual programming environment plus basically a WYSIWYG survey creator in a week, with no specs, no design and no API. Turns out there's no back end and it just needs to dupe investors I guess. Don't worry though, there's some terrible, uncommented existing code that is far worse than starting from scratch. I'm technically very adept, I learn very quickly and I'm always pleasant and polite. Every contract I have ever taken on has been a smashing success. I have great reviews from people I have worked with. I rarely complain but I'm just really having a hard moment. Just the act of writing a cover letter is emotionally and mentally exhausting. The mental gymnastics I have to perform to try and figure out what people are actually expecting and how my words will be misinterpreted are truly exhausting. I just love programming. It's given me a purpose and I have a knack for it. I hoped it would help me find a role in society, but right now I'm not sure. Everyone talks a big game about diversity but I've yet to see it in action. I've had very experienced people look at my resume, and said it was good. Of course I'm going to keep trying. I just needed to let that out.

achempion 6y ago
I understand what you're talking about. The interview stage might be upsetting for quite a while but it's over when you find a right company. Just a reminder that you could create you own company (consulting or product) to exclude hiring interviews and cover letters from your life completely.
6y ago

totorovirus 6y ago

Kinda reminds me of getting more followers on instagram

richardARPANET 6y ago

The suggestion of filling code with "Created by Bob" and other pointless comments is not a good idea.

hinkley 6y ago
I have found that when you feel the need to use an inline comment for a TODO or to explain why a line of code seems out of place but isn’t, adding your name to it helps people figure out what’s up. In particular, old TODOs can be quite cryptic. If the code has morphed enough, and your coworkers have poor VCS discipline, tracking the author down can be challenging.

a_imho 6y ago

This is super cringe and is not even effective. Want to get a raise/promotion? Apply for a new job.

hinkley 6y ago
I had a coworker who’d get a hair cut, wear a suit to work and take a long lunch whenever he wanted a raise.

jskdvsksnb 6y ago

I work with someone who does all these things aggressively: super polished code, always talking in slack, always talking in meetings. My impression is that he doesn't actually produce a lot of code, but he's very impressive to management because he's constantly giving his opinion and overcommunicating. I find it insufferable.

GoToRO 6y ago

Yeah... no! None of the people evaluating my work ever open git. So it’s all gossip. Don’t be naive thinking that coleagues will praise you or that any manager knows how to look at code in git. If you write code that is that good you will be considered a threat by your coleagues and by the manager.

fxtentacle 6y ago

More like: "Getting noticed if being doxed and then shuffled into a mediocre job are your thing" The article is clearly marketing. Advice #1 is effectively just saying "don't suck". Obviously you should be producing good, useful, readable, and maintained code. That's not the path to getting noticed, but more like a prerequisite for not getting fired. Which the author apparently did not follow. Why does this need 3rd party JavaScript just to display the background behind the source code example? With uBlock Origin, it's white text on white background... And in line with my impression of that article, here's the "amazing" jobs that wait for you when you succeed with TripleByte's advice: https://triplebyte.com/jobs https://triplebyte.com/jobs It's all about becoming a tiny cog in a big machine.

mratsim 6y ago
20 jobs at Coinbase, 1 at Facebook, 2 at TrueCar in the front page. Amazing diversity.
- sJ646U9k6c6gME9 6y ago
  I’ve interviewed with both Facebook and Coinbase via Triplebyte. Guess what? Both forced me through a complete gauntlet of interviews and disregarded Triplebyte’s report entirely. So what is the point of Triplebyte in all of this?
  - opencl 6y ago
    I think the point is getting an interview at companies that would otherwise completely ignore you if you applied through the normal process. Probably most valuable for people who do well on the tests but don't have a particularly impressive looking resume/CV.
    - thdc 6y ago
      Personal experience: I went through Triplebyte personally a few years back - twice. I was able to pass their evaluation/interview without any prep and got in to the matching phase. The first time: I got matched with one company which ended up hiring someone before I could interview and another company that declined to go further after a phone screen. The second time: I wasn't matched with anything. The only reason I ended up trying to go through them was because I had a virtually nonexistent response rate through the normal application process while looking for my first job and I thought it would help me get through the initial resume filtering stage which is where I assume I get dropped all the time.

beauzero 6y ago

Do not use Slack/Teams as your water cooler. Don't add the clutter...please. Look how popular Yammer isn't. That is water cooler talk for Slack and Teams.