5 ms·

Yup this is true for the most part, although someone bad will be harder to justify. It’s hilarious listening to people review candidates on third coding interv

Yup this is true for the most part, although someone bad will be harder to justify. It’s hilarious listening to people review candidates on third coding interviews. Usually it’s “this person didn’t know this one thing I think makes me really smart”. This is why I lean so heavy in OSS to review candidates. I can see how they interact with people, and whether they are actually able to build software that _people want_ I find with this approach it’s a lot harder to justify nonsense. I hear people say maybe they don’t have time for OSS and then hand them a Leetcode interview, which as we all know is just about memorizing problems. OSS is such a better metric and has the added benefit of improving the world.

lelanthran 4y ago
> It’s hilarious listening to people review candidates on third coding interviews. Usually it’s “this person didn’t know this one thing I think makes me really smart”. Yup. I just went through a round of interviews at multiple companies. In the past I successfully interviewed at a FAANG. I agree completely.
rvz 4y ago
> This is why I lean so heavy in OSS to review candidates. I can see how they interact with people, and whether they are actually able to build software that _people want_ This. There is absolutely no need to ask such ridiculous algorithms and advanced equations questions that you will never use or implement from scratch yourself, or asking the candidate to create a formal proof by rote for a entry-level software engineering position or even a senior level position. Such interviewers who ask these questions have both googled the answers to these questions before the interview and also have never used them practically, but only do this to appear smarter than they actually are. Worse part is not even FAANG asks any of these formal proof questions, but only some certain startups that the last time I have checked, they have failed to make money and have shutdown. Why? Because they seriously thought they were a FAANG company. Open-source cuts through the algorithms nonsense, saves time and gets a realistic idea of what the candidate has actually worked on in the open. I can ignore the typical hello world, or demo projects but can ask for if they have created open-source libraries or contributions to any serious projects like compilers, OS projects, or any related project to the job description etc. A take home project is also a fine metric, but asking questions about algorithms and finding out that the interviewer (or the company) doesn't even use them tells you that the interviewer doesn't know what they are looking for.
itronitron 4y ago
https://people.wku.edu/sally.kuhlenschmidt/whimsy/oss/ossstrs.htm https://people.wku.edu/sally.kuhlenschmidt/whimsy/oss/ossstr...

lelanthran 4y ago

> It’s hilarious listening to people review candidates on third coding interviews. Usually it’s “this person didn’t know this one thing I think makes me really smart”. Yup. I just went through a round of interviews at multiple companies. In the past I successfully interviewed at a FAANG. I agree completely.

rvz 4y ago

> This is why I lean so heavy in OSS to review candidates. I can see how they interact with people, and whether they are actually able to build software that _people want_ This. There is absolutely no need to ask such ridiculous algorithms and advanced equations questions that you will never use or implement from scratch yourself, or asking the candidate to create a formal proof by rote for a entry-level software engineering position or even a senior level position. Such interviewers who ask these questions have both googled the answers to these questions before the interview and also have never used them practically, but only do this to appear smarter than they actually are. Worse part is not even FAANG asks any of these formal proof questions, but only some certain startups that the last time I have checked, they have failed to make money and have shutdown. Why? Because they seriously thought they were a FAANG company. Open-source cuts through the algorithms nonsense, saves time and gets a realistic idea of what the candidate has actually worked on in the open. I can ignore the typical hello world, or demo projects but can ask for if they have created open-source libraries or contributions to any serious projects like compilers, OS projects, or any related project to the job description etc. A take home project is also a fine metric, but asking questions about algorithms and finding out that the interviewer (or the company) doesn't even use them tells you that the interviewer doesn't know what they are looking for.

itronitron 4y ago

https://people.wku.edu/sally.kuhlenschmidt/whimsy/oss/ossstrs.htm https://people.wku.edu/sally.kuhlenschmidt/whimsy/oss/ossstr...