3 ms·

The main curse as an IC is that your productivity is heavily dependent on outside forces - more so than many other industries imo (or, at least, would be more e

The main curse as an IC is that your productivity is heavily dependent on outside forces - more so than many other industries imo (or, at least, would be more easily recognized as a management level problem elsewhere) Like an artist who gets a contract to paint a house for a client but when (s)he arrives half the canvas is already wrecked by an offshore team... this is why teams have to put SWE candidates through 9 interviews as a single bad hire risks tainting the canvas for their colleagues

sambazi 3y ago
all canvas are tainted, it's the chemistry of the team that decides what will become of it
xandrius 3y ago
The "9 interviews" quote irks me so badly: you're telling me that a modern company can have a "bad hire" actually causing any damage? What are code reviews, retros, and standups for? I think current tech interviews (with unpaid take home exercises, live coding, tech quizzes, etc.), are just a really inefficient and ironically lazy way to decide who to hire. A company could temp-hire 3 different people (anyone who applied and could talk about their past projects), pay them for 1 month and you evaluate them then. At the end of the month, you decide who to keep. You might fail to pick a great candidate or maybe not but at least you give people a fair chance to get assessed in the job and not on a little dance everyone needs to do just to get into the door, which just wastes everyone's time. That also allows the candidate to show how they truly are, both skills, learning a new workflow and culturally. Right now, it's just a matter of performance and luck. /rant
- adrianN 3y ago
  Process can prevent a small fraction of bad hires from doing much damage. Once a critical mass of bad employees is reached the process stops working.
- Scarblac 3y ago
  > A company could temp-hire 3 different people (anyone who applied and could talk about their past projects), pay them for 1 month and you evaluate them then. At the end of the month, you decide who to keep But who would agree to join a company that has a procedure like that? Most people looking for a job are either already in one, or have several ongoing job applications, or both.
  - xboxnolifes 3y ago
    > But who would agree to join a company that has a procedure like that? Juniors. I certainly would with my current situation.
  - xandrius 3y ago
    Some of the people who got laid off might disagree. I would at least I get some cash during my job hunt, get to make new connections and have a chance to get a new job. Also allows me to evaluate the company and not accept the full time offer after the probation time has expired. Win win.
- intelVISA 3y ago
  I agree, and 9 was a bit hyperbole, still that is the perception a potential candidate is up against. Not a fan of big timesinks like take homes at all, unpaid work has no place in a hiring pipeline.

sambazi 3y ago

all canvas are tainted, it's the chemistry of the team that decides what will become of it

xandrius 3y ago

The "9 interviews" quote irks me so badly: you're telling me that a modern company can have a "bad hire" actually causing any damage? What are code reviews, retros, and standups for? I think current tech interviews (with unpaid take home exercises, live coding, tech quizzes, etc.), are just a really inefficient and ironically lazy way to decide who to hire. A company could temp-hire 3 different people (anyone who applied and could talk about their past projects), pay them for 1 month and you evaluate them then. At the end of the month, you decide who to keep. You might fail to pick a great candidate or maybe not but at least you give people a fair chance to get assessed in the job and not on a little dance everyone needs to do just to get into the door, which just wastes everyone's time. That also allows the candidate to show how they truly are, both skills, learning a new workflow and culturally. Right now, it's just a matter of performance and luck. /rant

adrianN 3y ago
Process can prevent a small fraction of bad hires from doing much damage. Once a critical mass of bad employees is reached the process stops working.
Scarblac 3y ago
> A company could temp-hire 3 different people (anyone who applied and could talk about their past projects), pay them for 1 month and you evaluate them then. At the end of the month, you decide who to keep But who would agree to join a company that has a procedure like that? Most people looking for a job are either already in one, or have several ongoing job applications, or both.
- xboxnolifes 3y ago
  > But who would agree to join a company that has a procedure like that? Juniors. I certainly would with my current situation.
- xandrius 3y ago
  Some of the people who got laid off might disagree. I would at least I get some cash during my job hunt, get to make new connections and have a chance to get a new job. Also allows me to evaluate the company and not accept the full time offer after the probation time has expired. Win win.
intelVISA 3y ago
I agree, and 9 was a bit hyperbole, still that is the perception a potential candidate is up against. Not a fan of big timesinks like take homes at all, unpaid work has no place in a hiring pipeline.