4 ms·

I prefer working with, and hiring, the sort of people that FAANGs would never look at: diverse and weird education or experience be backgrounds, grossly unrelat

I prefer working with, and hiring, the sort of people that FAANGs would never look at: diverse and weird education or experience be backgrounds, grossly unrelated hobbies, and pressing personal responsibilities like a band, family, or sport. Some of the best programmers I've worked with were ex high school teachers, military, set designers, nurses and such. I _want to believe_ that folks like this trend towards flexibility and teamwork. That they're at work for the purpose of earning, and work with the goal of delivering. They'll collaborate when possible, and cut features when necessary.

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jonny_eh 5y ago
So… willing to be underpaid and work long hours?
- dleslie 5y ago
  I prefer teams that never/rarely work overtime or weekends, and have fair market compensation.
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
  That’s what worked for me (as an employee). I’m a high school dropout, with a GED, and some tech school training (from a now-defunct certificate mill). Not exactly a Stanford Ph.D. When that’s your pedigree, no one gives you a break, so you have to make your own, and prove yourself at every step. Sort of “A Boy Named Sue” thing. It either makes you, or breaks you. Kept me humble, hungry, and a team player. Yeah, I got taken advantage of, but I also found that people would give me incredible opportunity, as I was a lot cheaper than an architect. My very first engineering project was complete hardware and firmware design of a microwave switching device[0]. Almost no one gets that kind of opportunity. Most folks have to wait years before being trusted with much lower levels of responsibility (I had almost no supervision or guidance, during the project). Did I mention that this was my very first engineering project, ever? The only reason I got it, was because I was given the rather humble task of assembling an ATE system, and I was getting tired of constantly stopping the test to rewire the units. My boss got sick of me bitching, and said “Why don’t you do something about it?” So I did. Since he told me to do it, he couldn’t very well prevent me from following through. That’s been the story of my life. People toss me difficult problems, to shut me up, and I solve them. This has not always won me friends. I’ve learned that, quite often, people don’t actually want their problems solved, and get quite upset, when you solve them; even when they asked you to. In the aggregate, it has worked out well. I’ve retired, ten years early (not by choice -thanks, ageism!). [0] https://littlegreenviper.com/TF30194/TF30194-Manual-1987.pdf https://littlegreenviper.com/TF30194/TF30194-Manual-1987.pdf (downloads a PDF)
yesimahuman 5y ago
Yea I've worked with some great programmers who would never pass an interview at FAANG, but whose work at various startups surpasses the work they and others do at those big tech companies. I love working with people like that!

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

jonny_eh 5y ago

So… willing to be underpaid and work long hours?

dleslie 5y ago
I prefer teams that never/rarely work overtime or weekends, and have fair market compensation.
ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
That’s what worked for me (as an employee). I’m a high school dropout, with a GED, and some tech school training (from a now-defunct certificate mill). Not exactly a Stanford Ph.D. When that’s your pedigree, no one gives you a break, so you have to make your own, and prove yourself at every step. Sort of “A Boy Named Sue” thing. It either makes you, or breaks you. Kept me humble, hungry, and a team player. Yeah, I got taken advantage of, but I also found that people would give me incredible opportunity, as I was a lot cheaper than an architect. My very first engineering project was complete hardware and firmware design of a microwave switching device[0]. Almost no one gets that kind of opportunity. Most folks have to wait years before being trusted with much lower levels of responsibility (I had almost no supervision or guidance, during the project). Did I mention that this was my very first engineering project, ever? The only reason I got it, was because I was given the rather humble task of assembling an ATE system, and I was getting tired of constantly stopping the test to rewire the units. My boss got sick of me bitching, and said “Why don’t you do something about it?” So I did. Since he told me to do it, he couldn’t very well prevent me from following through. That’s been the story of my life. People toss me difficult problems, to shut me up, and I solve them. This has not always won me friends. I’ve learned that, quite often, people don’t actually want their problems solved, and get quite upset, when you solve them; even when they asked you to. In the aggregate, it has worked out well. I’ve retired, ten years early (not by choice -thanks, ageism!). [0] https://littlegreenviper.com/TF30194/TF30194-Manual-1987.pdf https://littlegreenviper.com/TF30194/TF30194-Manual-1987.pdf (downloads a PDF)

yesimahuman 5y ago

Yea I've worked with some great programmers who would never pass an interview at FAANG, but whose work at various startups surpasses the work they and others do at those big tech companies. I love working with people like that!