6 ms·

I really like this article. There are a lot of unconventional candidates out there that could do great work if any established business or startup would give th

I really like this article. There are a lot of unconventional candidates out there that could do great work if any established business or startup would give them a chance, but since they're not the perfect resume candidate, or close to it, they can't get in the door to show their chops. It's basically classism, because the candidates most likely to have that perfect resume or flawless work history would have come from a privileged background, where they had all sorts of resources available to them, were never forced to get a job outside their field to earn a wage, and were never hurting for connections. Take me for example. I graduated in 2008 with a computer science degree from a pretty good state school. I resigned from my first job after feeling extreme burn-out and anxiety from a broken process and constant missed deadlines. If you have any gap in employment though that throws up huge red flags for a lot of employers, as well as being anxiety prone and not interviewing so great because of it, or not being fully knowledgeable about whatever particular software stack that business is using. And i know you can lie on a resume but some of us aren't so comfortable doing that. So it ends up if you have any red flags, you're basically never getting employed again. Fired unfairly from your last job: good luck explaining that one. Family or personal emergency create a hole in your resume: that's not gonna look good. Have other concerns that take up your free time besides building up your Github: you must just not be dedicated or in love with the field (which is not the same as not being able to do the work). I sort of long for the early days of programming back when you could just walk in the door and take an IQ test with an employer to see if you were capable of being a programmer, regardless of your current / past employment, personal history, etc. Now to do any sort of work you have to have already done the work, which is exceedingly difficult if you are currently working full time in a different field (out of financial necessity), and aren't a lone white bachelor who has loads of free time to spend on personal projects. So what do i do now: i clean houses. It's fine work if you have nice clients, but i'm also underemployed and very low income. It's easy to get discouraged about even trying to interview, when you're pretty sure once they see your resume, any effort you've put in would have been a waste. No one seems to want to hire a housecleaner as a programmer (classism), regardless of my education, high SAT / GRE / college GPA. I'm damaged goods, and it doesn't matter if i can do the work or not, i'm just not an attractive candidate. Sorry for the rant. But i can't be the only one out there. I bet there are a lot of capable workers out there that are either unemployed or underutilized because of discrimination of one type or another.

untog 14y ago
I sort of long for the early days of programming back when you could just walk in the door and take an IQ test with an employer to see if you were capable of being a programmer Unfortunately, that's how you end up with a team that is incapable of communicating, because you never evaluated an employee based on their social skills. I do get what you mean, but I think that tech is actually an amazing field for self-improvement, if you try. I wanted to work at a company using a software stack unfamiliar to me. I downloaded it, got to grips with the basics and said as much in my interview. There are very few other fields in which you can do that. If you're unhappy with your current job, then it might be time to learn some new technologies and post some examples to Github. I know, it uses up free time you don't want to give up. But you have to sacrifice that stuff every once and a while if you want to move ahead in life.
- lilsunnybee 14y ago
  Your first point is something covered in the article. When you evaluate a candidate's social skills, you really end up evaluating whether they're a good "cultural fit" or not, which usually means you aren't hiring a very diverse team. Wouldn't want things to be too awkward around the office by hiring someone too different. Investing time in learning a completely different stack for every job you apply for seems like a very inefficient use of time, especially when it could take you weeks to get a really good grasp on the nuances of a particular stack, but it only takes about a second for an employer to drop you from consideration. It's "possible" to be upwardly mobile, particularly in the tech field, nowadays, but it takes a certain personality type to do so. Upward mobility for driven, workaholic, A-type personalities is a pretty narrow path to success though, especially when even those personality types, given certain life circumstances, are extremely constrained in how much they are able to accomplish. So much for the meritocracy; capability counts for a lot less than the resources one already has available.
  - untog 14y ago
    When you evaluate a candidate's social skills, you really end up evaluating whether they're a good "cultural fit" or not, which usually means you aren't hiring a very diverse team. No. I know what you're saying- that a lot of startups encourage fratty behaviour and so on, which is true. But communication skills are entirely separate, and important. It's impossible to be an effective team without communication- that's not a "cultural" thing. Investing time in learning a completely different stack for every job you apply for seems like a very inefficient use of time True- I did it just once, for the job I wanted. But you could also quite easily look at what kinds of technologies companies are using- there will be general trends that can help you.

untog 14y ago

I sort of long for the early days of programming back when you could just walk in the door and take an IQ test with an employer to see if you were capable of being a programmer Unfortunately, that's how you end up with a team that is incapable of communicating, because you never evaluated an employee based on their social skills. I do get what you mean, but I think that tech is actually an amazing field for self-improvement, if you try. I wanted to work at a company using a software stack unfamiliar to me. I downloaded it, got to grips with the basics and said as much in my interview. There are very few other fields in which you can do that. If you're unhappy with your current job, then it might be time to learn some new technologies and post some examples to Github. I know, it uses up free time you don't want to give up. But you have to sacrifice that stuff every once and a while if you want to move ahead in life.

lilsunnybee 14y ago
Your first point is something covered in the article. When you evaluate a candidate's social skills, you really end up evaluating whether they're a good "cultural fit" or not, which usually means you aren't hiring a very diverse team. Wouldn't want things to be too awkward around the office by hiring someone too different. Investing time in learning a completely different stack for every job you apply for seems like a very inefficient use of time, especially when it could take you weeks to get a really good grasp on the nuances of a particular stack, but it only takes about a second for an employer to drop you from consideration. It's "possible" to be upwardly mobile, particularly in the tech field, nowadays, but it takes a certain personality type to do so. Upward mobility for driven, workaholic, A-type personalities is a pretty narrow path to success though, especially when even those personality types, given certain life circumstances, are extremely constrained in how much they are able to accomplish. So much for the meritocracy; capability counts for a lot less than the resources one already has available.
- untog 14y ago
  When you evaluate a candidate's social skills, you really end up evaluating whether they're a good "cultural fit" or not, which usually means you aren't hiring a very diverse team. No. I know what you're saying- that a lot of startups encourage fratty behaviour and so on, which is true. But communication skills are entirely separate, and important. It's impossible to be an effective team without communication- that's not a "cultural" thing. Investing time in learning a completely different stack for every job you apply for seems like a very inefficient use of time True- I did it just once, for the job I wanted. But you could also quite easily look at what kinds of technologies companies are using- there will be general trends that can help you.