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> We've had a massive influx of new tech talent about 1 out of 100 people i interviewed actually know how computers work, we still hired about 10 out of 100 (t

• time_to_smile 4y ago
  > about 1 out of 100 people i interviewed actually know how computers work, we still hired about 10 out of 100 This is very reminiscent of the dotcom bubble. If you knew how to turn a computer on you could get a relatively high paying tech job. The quality of tech talent has dropped significantly in recent years, even (maybe especially?) among the leetcode grinding crowd. Software engineers have already replaced themselves with AI by turning into interviewing machines that know how to survive in a large tech company but if asked to build and ship a product from nothing would be completely frozen. I really miss programming in the post-dotcom shadow. Most people in tech where in it because they loved writing code and solving hard technical problems. TC was literally not a term at that point, virtually nobody had RSUs, comp was fine but nothing amazing. There were plenty of jobs that paid better than writing software so all the people looking for a quick buck fled there and left coders alone.
• deleted 4y ago
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• nicenewtemp84 4y ago
  As long as the person you're stealing the bread from isn't having their own financial crisis I suppose that's fine. You can steal it from larger corporations also until they close the store because too many things are being stolen.
• 5350-uiop-1130 4y ago
  > about 1 out of 100 people i interviewed actually know how computers work i know you're exaggerating but it doesn't change that dev is extremely saturated. and toxic job market has shown being good won't protect you from being filtered.
  • shard 4y ago
    I've been in tech for decades, and I don't know how computers work. I can describe it from transistor level up to moderately complex logic circuits (basic memory cells, multipliers) but have a blank spot from there to Harvard architecture, then from IC level I know how circuit boards work, from layout to parasitics to bypass caps, but have a blank spot from there to advanced communications protocols (PCI bus etc). On the software side, I understand compilers, apps, and website operations, but am missing the whole chunk of how OSes and file systems work. Does any one person actual know how computers work?
    • deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
    • ajmurmann 4y ago
      I don't think I work with anyone who understands even the entirety of the software my team works on, despite many of them having worked on it for well over a decade. So understand how a computer works...
    • sgerenser 4y ago
      I bet Jeff Dean does. Unfortunately Google already hired him, so the rest of the companies have to make do with people who know less than Jeff Dean.
  • throwaway71271 4y ago
    > i know you're exaggerating ask someone how 'typing in a textarea in hackernews' works, and you will be surprised (just an example because thats what i am doing right now haha) > and toxic job market has shown being good won't protect you from being filtered. of course, who said its going to be easy, my point was, it will be bad for a bit, then good for a bit and so on, it just happens that the youngsters now have only seen the good bit, and are freaking out because they think their job is who they are.
• scruple 4y ago
  > how long you have to do what? It seemed fairly obvious from the GP: How long they have before they get laid-off and struggle to find employment in the technology industry. > i have lived with 2$ per day and with 200$ per day and its fine I've lived on $0 a day, seeing as I've literally been homeless and dead broke in my life, but today I have a demanding career, a spouse, children, dogs, a home, etc., and all of them are massively dependent on me. I don't think I'm personally at-risk of losing my job today but, like the GP, I also have to regularly engage with my brain to keep my anxiety about the future of the technology industry at bay. edit/ And that's just me, I'm a US citizen and CBP can't come deport me because my Visa expired. There are other things at stake here for a lot of people beyond the simple act of earning an income.
  • BurningFrog 4y ago
    According to the immigration lawyers I've talked to, nobody gets deported for overstaying a tech work visa. ICE has priorities, and this is very far from being one of them.
    • estebank 4y ago
      You might not get deported, but overstaying a visa will cause you trouble if you are ever planning on getting a new visa afterwards, be it dual-intent or just to visit. Not being able to attend an on-site meeting or conference because you took "too long" to pack up and leave after having your life uprooted from one day to the next still sucks, even if it isn't as traumatizing as being raided in the middle of the night.
  • hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago
    > I have a demanding [...] spouse Many people can relate to that. On a more serious note, there is not much we can do about all this, really. We neither have the complete picture nor know what hides behind the corner. So relaxing a bit (while still taking the time to learn some new skills...) is not bad advice.
    • scruple 4y ago
• checkcircuits 4y ago
  If I didn't need healthcare I wouldn't worry. COBRA will drain my emergency fund twice as fast as if I didn't need it. Moreover, I grew up poor. I will not go back. I've come too far to let some silver spoon patagonia wearing pricks take my livelihood from me.
  • lowercased 4y ago
    Look at ACA plan if you're laid off. Will be based on income, and you'd have no income. Likely a bit more complicated than that, but investigate it.
    • dkjaudyeqooe 4y ago
      > Likely a bit more complicated than that It's really not. Also no asset test so you can have a nice house and $100,000 and you still qualify as if you were utterly broke.
    • freediverx 4y ago
      ACA was useless when I was unemployed years ago.
    • kcplate 4y ago
      It’s based on the previous year’s income I believe like most US assistance programs. Generally if you want gov assistance in the US, you pretty much need to be poor for a full calendar year, plus about 4 months.
      • dkjaudyeqooe 4y ago
        You just need a basis for proving your current or expected income. Also, in CA, you can make an "urgent" application and be enrolled within 2 days. I requires some pressing medical problem, but that doesn't have to be life or death.
      • sgerenser 4y ago
        No, you can put down whatever you expect your income to be and receive subsidies based on that. If you end up making more than you expect that year (good problem to have!) you'll have to repay some or all of the subsidies on your tax return.
• whiplash451 4y ago
  The second half of your message does not really sympathize well with all the tech folks who’s family depends on for a living.
• bulkprotocol 4y ago
  It doesn't define you. It does define how well you can provide food for your family and a roof over your head. I have been completely dead broke but I'm single and live very frugally with a roommate. I'm less worried about AI taking all our jobs and more worried about the turmoil as it takes the "good ones" first. Great if you are a capital owner saving on head count, not great if you are a worker.
• kkcorps 4y ago
  Holy based
• maldev 4y ago
  It honestly shows that alot of people havn't done interviews with the comments. You're 100% right with the 1:100 people knowing how a computer works. I legit have to ask FizzBuzz and I would like 4 out of 5 people can't do it. Like maybe we'll see the industry require the bare minimum of actually knowing how to write a basic program for a 6 figures job, but we arn't gonna go anywhere as a profession.
  • nibbleshifter 4y ago
    I honestly can't remember what a fizzbuzz is unless pressed. Same with many other stupid interview questions. Its so far from anything useful I've done. By now surely there's a Python module for it anyway!
    • maldev 4y ago
      Bro, it's literally printing out "fizz" if a number is divisible by 3, and "buzz" if it's divisible by 5, on a for loop from 1 to 100. You really need a python module for a 3 line for loop??
  • ajmurmann 4y ago
    I've had an interview were I couldn't detect a palindrome because I was out of my mind nervous and couldn't think at all. Meanwhile I've been team lead, engineering director and published research papers on machine learning. But interviewing is such a different situation with its own challenges. I've conducted interviews where candidates were absolutely amazing and then got hung up on a tiny mistake and then got clearly way too nervous and performed much worse.
  • simplotek 4y ago
    > wing how a computer works. I legit have to ask FizzBuzz What leads you to believe that fizzbuzz is a relevant litmus test for competent software developers?
    • BurningFrog 4y ago
      It's not for that. It weeds out people who can't write code at all. Yes, tons of them do apply for dev jobs.
• lisasays 4y ago
  About 1 out of 100 people i interviewed actually know how computers work Either you're really, really crappy at filtering resumes and other pre-interview signalling - or you're exaggerating.
  • sleepybrett 4y ago
    Strong disagree. I know many programmers these days that really don't have any idea how a computer works. It's been abstracted away from things they need to worry about 99.9% of the time.
    • wyclif 4y ago
      And people need to distinguish between "can't describe the boot sequence in detail", or "doesn't know SQL registers" and someone who may very well be a productive employee.
      • lisasays 4y ago
        And the fun part is - everyone (who favors this aggressive interview tactic) seems to have their own set of shibboleth definitions which -- for them -- are magical tells as to whether someone is bozo / plodder or not. For some, it's the boot sequence of a PC. For others, it's the Liskov Substitution Principle. For others, it might precise definitions of all the database transaction or normalization levels. That is - pieces of genuinely useful knowledge, to be sure. Stuff we probably should have been exposed to at least once. But also stuff that, once we've gotten the basic point - is easy to slip out of our muscle memory over the years. Especially as we end up doing, you know, real work for real people. And we start to develop genuine technical horse sense that goes beyond the ability to memorize (and retain for years and years) zillions of verbal definitions for things.
        • sleepybrett 4y ago
          I want to be clear, i've hired several engineers who don't know how computers actually work. It's fine, there are certain optimization tasks I would probably assign to someone else maybe to pair with the less educated engineer, but other than that the code they are working on is so absurdly abstracted from the metal it really doesn't matter that much.
• harimau777 4y ago
  > ...know how computers work... That's what worries me. There was a time when I could write low level C and even some assembly. Similarly there was a time when I could explain the ins and outs of IP packets and routing. However, none of that is what the market wanted and I don't remember any of that anymore. Heck, with most of my work involving running around trying to hold understaffed systems together and juggle the unreasonable demands of management; I don't even have the programming/web development skills that I used to.
• dorfsmay 4y ago
  2$ per with kids and a mortgage?