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I always ask those kinds of questions. I also ask what people are proud about. But I rarely get good answers, it's always some generic answers like "I built so

by whstl 3y ago

I always ask those kinds of questions. I also ask what people are proud about. But I rarely get good answers, it's always some generic answers like "I built software for the company". Some people even fail to remember anything. Interviewing is hard :/

kstrauser 3y ago
I’ve been on the other side of the table my share of times, and it’s so hard. I think that style has lots of signal, though. I don’t really wanna work with someone who can’t describe something they spent the last 2 years working on. Cheers for Team Grown-Up Conversation!
- whstl 3y ago
  Yep, totally agree. I feel the same as you.
harimau777 3y ago
The problem I see is that the things that I'm most proud of (that had the most value for the company) aren't necessarily the things that are likely to get me a job. E.g. by far the biggest impact that I've had at my current company is not any of the code that I've written; it's having interviewed and recommended for hiring several developers who have become top performers. The second biggest impact has been reforming processes that didn't bring value and killed moral. In fact, actually coding has been one of the smallest areas where I've contributed to my company. However, saying all that isn't going to get me a coding job. It's all about how many tickets you completed or at best features you implemented.
- kstrauser 3y ago
  No, that’s exactly the kind of thing I’d like to hear about! Show me that you can think about those million things beside writing code that make you great to have around!
  - whstl 3y ago
    Exactly. It's great knowing those extra talents beforehand. One developer I hired also does Figma designs. Since I also do, I decided to hire them and we now do the designs ourselves.
- whstl 3y ago
  > it's having interviewed and recommended for hiring several developers who have become top performers That's actually a great answer.
vaylian 3y ago
> Some people even fail to remember anything. This is me. Part of the reason is that there is a never-ending torrent of problems that need to be solved. You've got this really tricky issue sorted out? Great, there is more stuff waiting down the line. This doesn't leave room for remembering and acknowledging the significance of things. However, there are some things that I actually am proud of, now that I think about it. But these are the moments, when I'm able to help a coworker with some technical obstacle and I've solved the issue within a few minutes because it's easy for me to see what's wrong. It's the exact opposite of a herculean effort but it causes a huge relief for my coworkers. But is this something that a recruiter would want to hear? I doubt it. They are more interested in me taking care of my tasks instead of the tasks of other people.
- kstrauser 3y ago
  If I suspected I could hire someone that would never write a line of feature code but could make everyone else on the team 20% more productive, I’d hand-walk their application through HR. Have you ever considered specializing in platform and tooling work? Become the office hero!
  - pdimitar 3y ago
    Not your parent commenter. I considered it many times and with time became a tooling expert in many, many CLI areas. It's rare for me to be asked "do you know of a CLI tool that does X and Y?" and for me to be unable to answer. 1 out of 20 times, probably. Problem is that nobody wants to pay only for that, or I had a really shitty luck and didn't make a special effort to find better companies (reflecting back, sadly both are true). So wherever I worked, I was the senior dev + the tooling expert everyone was asking advice from. The latter part became like a hobby that I never managed to monetize.
- whstl 3y ago
  Minor things are better than the super popular "I helped create a blockchain app that served 2 billion users and moved 5 trillion dollars per day". Those I legitimately don't care for, and the other answers must be good to make up for it. Disorganized answers are fine. Technical interviews are a place to talk shop. Run away from interviewers looking for perfection. Recruiters forward the answer to us, so at least in my case the more techy the better.

by whstl 3y ago

kstrauser 3y ago

I’ve been on the other side of the table my share of times, and it’s so hard. I think that style has lots of signal, though. I don’t really wanna work with someone who can’t describe something they spent the last 2 years working on. Cheers for Team Grown-Up Conversation!

whstl 3y ago
Yep, totally agree. I feel the same as you.

harimau777 3y ago

The problem I see is that the things that I'm most proud of (that had the most value for the company) aren't necessarily the things that are likely to get me a job. E.g. by far the biggest impact that I've had at my current company is not any of the code that I've written; it's having interviewed and recommended for hiring several developers who have become top performers. The second biggest impact has been reforming processes that didn't bring value and killed moral. In fact, actually coding has been one of the smallest areas where I've contributed to my company. However, saying all that isn't going to get me a coding job. It's all about how many tickets you completed or at best features you implemented.

kstrauser 3y ago
No, that’s exactly the kind of thing I’d like to hear about! Show me that you can think about those million things beside writing code that make you great to have around!
- whstl 3y ago
  Exactly. It's great knowing those extra talents beforehand. One developer I hired also does Figma designs. Since I also do, I decided to hire them and we now do the designs ourselves.
whstl 3y ago
> it's having interviewed and recommended for hiring several developers who have become top performers That's actually a great answer.

vaylian 3y ago

> Some people even fail to remember anything. This is me. Part of the reason is that there is a never-ending torrent of problems that need to be solved. You've got this really tricky issue sorted out? Great, there is more stuff waiting down the line. This doesn't leave room for remembering and acknowledging the significance of things. However, there are some things that I actually am proud of, now that I think about it. But these are the moments, when I'm able to help a coworker with some technical obstacle and I've solved the issue within a few minutes because it's easy for me to see what's wrong. It's the exact opposite of a herculean effort but it causes a huge relief for my coworkers. But is this something that a recruiter would want to hear? I doubt it. They are more interested in me taking care of my tasks instead of the tasks of other people.

kstrauser 3y ago
If I suspected I could hire someone that would never write a line of feature code but could make everyone else on the team 20% more productive, I’d hand-walk their application through HR. Have you ever considered specializing in platform and tooling work? Become the office hero!
- pdimitar 3y ago
  Not your parent commenter. I considered it many times and with time became a tooling expert in many, many CLI areas. It's rare for me to be asked "do you know of a CLI tool that does X and Y?" and for me to be unable to answer. 1 out of 20 times, probably. Problem is that nobody wants to pay only for that, or I had a really shitty luck and didn't make a special effort to find better companies (reflecting back, sadly both are true). So wherever I worked, I was the senior dev + the tooling expert everyone was asking advice from. The latter part became like a hobby that I never managed to monetize.
whstl 3y ago
Minor things are better than the super popular "I helped create a blockchain app that served 2 billion users and moved 5 trillion dollars per day". Those I legitimately don't care for, and the other answers must be good to make up for it. Disorganized answers are fine. Technical interviews are a place to talk shop. Run away from interviewers looking for perfection. Recruiters forward the answer to us, so at least in my case the more techy the better.