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A team always need to know what their goal is. For start-up, an engineering team might focus on product iteration/finding product-market fit. If you tell me sca

by a_c 5y ago

A team always need to know what their goal is. For start-up, an engineering team might focus on product iteration/finding product-market fit. If you tell me scalability was your focus in a 3-man, 3-months old start-up, my response will be somewhere between skeptical and confused. On the other hand, for a later stage company, defined by any reasonable metrics, be it revenue, DAU, API calls, stability and maintainability are some sensible consideration. So I do consider track record to deliver business value an important signal

loup-vaillant 5y ago
Except you're not hiring a team here. Only a single dev, who may not always have been on teams that have the right focus, and leadership that supported that focus. What can you tell me about your last job? Well, I overhauled the configuration GUI. How did that impact sales? Err, I don't think it did. It's not a feature we showcase. Did you at least made the product better? Actually, no. It just made it more complex and brittle. Wait, you made the product *worse*? Could not help it, the execs insisted on XML compatibility. Maybe they needed it? No, we had total control over our configuration files. Why didn't you tell them? I did. They wouldn't listen. Why not? You're the expert, you should have convinced them. ... I mean, here we need people who can deliver business value. Well, this time I couldn't. They wouldn't let— How would you rate your communication skills? Err, good I guess? Yet you couldn't convince management? ... I hope this conversation is not realistic. If it is, and it ever happens to me, I'll be sure to look for another company.
- marcosdumay 5y ago
  > Actually, no. It just made it more complex and brittle. If that line does not look like a strong "hire" signal to you, there's something wrong about you. Anyway, I think the large majority of the people I've seen interviewing anybody (including me) would use it as a "no hire". I guess I wouldn't want to hire the large majority of people I've seen conducting an interview...

by a_c 5y ago

loup-vaillant 5y ago

Except you're not hiring a team here. Only a single dev, who may not always have been on teams that have the right focus, and leadership that supported that focus. What can you tell me about your last job? Well, I overhauled the configuration GUI. How did that impact sales? Err, I don't think it did. It's not a feature we showcase. Did you at least made the product better? Actually, no. It just made it more complex and brittle. Wait, you made the product *worse*? Could not help it, the execs insisted on XML compatibility. Maybe they needed it? No, we had total control over our configuration files. Why didn't you tell them? I did. They wouldn't listen. Why not? You're the expert, you should have convinced them. ... I mean, here we need people who can deliver business value. Well, this time I couldn't. They wouldn't let— How would you rate your communication skills? Err, good I guess? Yet you couldn't convince management? ... I hope this conversation is not realistic. If it is, and it ever happens to me, I'll be sure to look for another company.

marcosdumay 5y ago
> Actually, no. It just made it more complex and brittle. If that line does not look like a strong "hire" signal to you, there's something wrong about you. Anyway, I think the large majority of the people I've seen interviewing anybody (including me) would use it as a "no hire". I guess I wouldn't want to hire the large majority of people I've seen conducting an interview...