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I want to know that a junior candidate: * Can actually produce something * Cares about the craft of software development (learning the why behind things inste

I want to know that a junior candidate: * Can actually produce something * Cares about the craft of software development (learning the why behind things instead of just copy-pasting examples until it works) * Has the initiative to be self-directed (learning and growing and pushing through obstacles instead of just waiting for someone to tell them answers) * Understands how to work with other humans Everything else will come naturally if the above are true. What will make someone stand out is showing that they are outstanding in one of the above categories. Almost any side project will show the first category. A side project that involves some complexity under the hood that you can talk about and talk about the struggles of learning it is even better because it can show some of the others.

eps 5y ago
Also: * Doesn't have any obvious gaps in education ... which will be the concern with someone self-taught. We hired a very bright and enthusiastic guy who dropped out of college after a year to work on his own sales/marketing funnel tool. It all was going well until out of the blue he pointed at a screen and asked what "a |= b" did. Pulled on the thread and not only he had no idea what bitwise ops were, he also didn't know quite a few of other basics. That's the kind of uncertainty that formal education usually removes and the reason why self-taught people having much harder time getting to the interviews.
- clpm4j 5y ago
  I imagine it was important for the specific job you're referring to, but there are plenty of dev jobs that don't require an understanding of bitwise ops.
  - eps 5y ago
    What it was exactly is secondary. The trouble was that there were gaping holes where it should've been solid and this complicated things in more ways than one.
  - 908B64B197 5y ago
    > but there are plenty of dev jobs that don't require an understanding of bitwise ops. I mean, any CS101 class, at least at good schools, will have bitwise ops.

eps 5y ago

Also: * Doesn't have any obvious gaps in education ... which will be the concern with someone self-taught. We hired a very bright and enthusiastic guy who dropped out of college after a year to work on his own sales/marketing funnel tool. It all was going well until out of the blue he pointed at a screen and asked what "a |= b" did. Pulled on the thread and not only he had no idea what bitwise ops were, he also didn't know quite a few of other basics. That's the kind of uncertainty that formal education usually removes and the reason why self-taught people having much harder time getting to the interviews.

clpm4j 5y ago
I imagine it was important for the specific job you're referring to, but there are plenty of dev jobs that don't require an understanding of bitwise ops.
- eps 5y ago
  What it was exactly is secondary. The trouble was that there were gaping holes where it should've been solid and this complicated things in more ways than one.
- 908B64B197 5y ago
  > but there are plenty of dev jobs that don't require an understanding of bitwise ops. I mean, any CS101 class, at least at good schools, will have bitwise ops.