6 ms·

There seems to be some confusion between a resume and a portfolio. While this is clever, unfortunately what it does is make the job of getting the candidate's

by alan_cx 13y ago

There seems to be some confusion between a resume and a portfolio. While this is clever, unfortunately what it does is make the job of getting the candidate's details harder. Say I have a pile of resumes and what not on my desk, and this. I want to compare them. Easy with the pile of 2 page resumes and attached portfolios, but with this I have to muck on a computer, trying to make out various bits and bobs, then even note them down myself so that I can compare. In fact, I clicked twice and gave up. People have suggested this is a great way for a designer to show case skills. But IMHO, this is a colossal disaster. What it has does is allow design to get in the way of the content, and worse still, make the content less accessible. Yes, very cute, flashy, clever and skilled, but it shows that the so called designer has failed to understand what the point of design is. Design is supposed to facilitate, NOT make things harder. If it make life harder, it has failed. Does it make the recruiters job easier? No. Does it facilitate the passing on of vital information? No. Clever skills, but a design failure. Really, I fully understand and appreciate that hackers appreciate the raw skills, and so we should, but I don't think people have their hiring HR heads on, and have also forgotten the basic point of design. Sorry to swim against the tide here, but given a pile of competent resumes, I'd probably skip this applicant.

wodow 13y ago
Would a single, promiment link at the start to a vanilla CV/resume have negated this? Then you would have the best of both worlds.
- drsim 13y ago
  Spot on. There's no doubt as a candidate you need to be comparable but you differentiating yourself is a multiplier. I applied for a marketing job at a fire safety firm. I'd never worked under a marketing job title (business development was my background) so I needed to differentiate. I burned off the bottom of my cover letter with some cheesy line like 'let me set your marketing on fire'. Got the interview.
- alan_cx 13y ago
  Partly, yes. The link would be called "Portfolio".
glanotte 13y ago
In that case, I think it works for both parties. He ruled you out as a potential employer. The person who admires it would probably see the candidate as a good fit.
- adamb_ 13y ago
  Exactly. If a prospective employer can't see the value of you taking a calculated risk and creatively applying your skills before you're hired, what makes you think they will afterward?
FLUX-YOU 13y ago
1. Send email requesting a 2 page resume 2. Add to resume pile Done! This situation should never occur on your behalf: Say I have a pile of resumes and what not on my desk, and this.
- teh_klev 13y ago
  >"Send email requesting a 2 page resume" It's an extra step in the process for the hiring bod, the resume should come before this. Also first time load on IE, Chrome and Firefox did this: http://i.imgur.com/Wn62Rh4.png http://i.imgur.com/Wn62Rh4.png At first I thought this was some cryptic "why the lucky stiff" malarky. Only after hitting refresh did the site load properly, I almost closed the tab, he might not be so lucky with someone who is a little less patient or in a rush. And finally what happens if the site goes down or gets slashdot/hn/reddited? Don't get me wrong, this is a nice demo of this person's skills (except for the use of the down arrow key to navigate right which is a minor usability foible) but it's a portfolio work and shouldn't be used solely as employer first contact when applying for a post.
  - alan_cx 13y ago
    I got that too, except its just said "LOADING", none of the other stuff. Maybe if I had waited longer? As you say, refreshing it fixed the issue.
  - oftenwrong 13y ago
    >And finally what happens if the site goes down or gets slashdot/hn/reddited? It would be great to have that many eyes on my resume.
    - chris24 13y ago
      This actually happened. The site's unavailable now.
__abc 13y ago
Really? I've been stuck with many piles of resumes and to have this show up would not only be a breath of fresh air vs the prototypical format, I GUARANTEE I would be talking about this one. Even if I didn't hire the person, I would be showing people this resume around the office. </$0.02>
- alan_cx 13y ago
  Well, yes, some people will, obviously.
  - namenotrequired 13y ago
    How many do you think he needs? :)
- notahacker 13y ago
  Prototypical resumes don't get shared on social media sites either...
peterjmag 13y ago
If he's looking for an animation- or illustration-heavy position, I think this is perfect. I'm sure it'll catch the eye of at least a few creative directors out there, at which point the standard HR process becomes a bit moot. I mean, he can always send a plain old PDF resume if he finds himself applying online for some random position, but I doubt he'll need to. Anyway, I really like it. No, it's not perfect—he loses some points for listing Dreamweaver as a skill—but it's good fun, and it certainly makes him stand out.
- pbhjpbhj 13y ago
  Dreamweaver is probably used in corporate web design settings quite a lot being a part of the Adobe toolset and all. Perhaps he's pandering to his market? What tweaked the nose of my bete-noir was the entry of HTML and CSS under "Scripting and Programming languages" - but I think it's fair to say he knows what he's doing, seriously impressive design work going on there.
  - phaus 13y ago
    To most non-coder types, to include management and hr people, HTML is a programming language and CSS is a question mark. For many of us who code, however, it really hurts to see someone misclassify nearly anything. I'd be willing to bet that he knows the difference and simply decided to simplify his resume by pretending he didn't.
    - pbhjpbhj 13y ago
      Indeed - as I said "I think it's fair to say he knows what he's doing".
- phaus 13y ago
  I see quite a few places advertise for Dreamweaver experience, so it makes sense to put it on a resume. He's first and foremost a designer, so I don't think it will hurt him too badly. Besides, just because someone uses a tool that you don't respect doesn't mean that they don't know how to code without it.
Tichy 13y ago
Do you really need all the details, since you can immediately see he has the skills? Why bother checking his university grades?
- alan_cx 13y ago
  Yes, and due diligence.
mikeryan 13y ago
I run an interactive agency in NYC. Showed this to my creative director and business partner and we pretty much reached out immediately. This kind of creativity and skill isn't easy to come by. YMMV.
- phaus 13y ago
  Good. Save that poor soul from having to keep working for Fox News. In all seriousness, I thought it was not only an awesome idea, but extremely well executed.
tlogan 13y ago
I never hired anybody because I got candidate's resume via HR or recruiter. It was always thru some connections and things like this.
russelluresti 13y ago
There are two assumptions in your post that I'd like to point out, and poke some holes in. First, you seem to be missing the actual point of a resume. No one makes decisions on who to HIRE based on a resume. The point of a resume is to get an INTERVIEW. Your resume could actually lack any details of the normal stuff that goes on one (education, experience, skills, etc) - but as long as what you provide gets you that interview then it's done its job. As someone who's done interviewing at interactive agencies, if I saw this I'd probably set up an interview. The second is your assumption about the purpose of a resume's design. Your thinking lies all on the company's side - making things easier for the recruiter and facilitating understanding of the reader; allow me to offer an alternate line of thinking. In an interview, it's not just the company determining if it wants to hire the prospect; it's also the prospect determining if she/he wants to work at that company. This resume has taken that to a step earlier. This person is purposely making his resume more creative and "difficult" to weed out prospective employers that don't value those things (this is actually something I do as well, though not to this extent). This person obviously wants to work for a very specific type of company and doesn't want to waste his time interviewing at companies that don't match his desire (like companies that use recruiters or where resumes go directly to HR people instead of hiring managers). So I'd argue that the design of his resume is specifically working very well at weeding out places where he wouldn't want to work and attracting the attention of places he would like to work.
- alan_cx 13y ago
  Point one. No, I never said or implied what you are saying. Point two. That is frankly so convoluted, I can only assume you just want to oppose what Im saying, but honestly don't know why.
  - russelluresti 13y ago
    Point one - yes you did. You specifically mentioned comparing people based on resumes. You don't compare people when determining who to interview - you only compare people when determining who to hire. Point two - how is it convoluted that a person would want to target his resume to a specific type of company? Customizing your resume for the company you want to work for is the first basic principle in writing a resume. He just does it in such a way to also exclude companies he wouldn't want to work for.
lhnz 13y ago
>> But it shows that the so called designer has failed to understand what the point of design is. Design is supposed to facilitate, NOT make things harder. You are the confused person here. Design isn't meant to facilitate understanding in all cases. You're letting one specific use cloud your understanding of a general concept. Designers design with specific aims in mind. These could be expression of content, ease of use for a specific culture, expression of a feeling, wow factor, or rigid conformity to a set style/concept, etc. Do you believe that somebody that simply wrote in a black-and-white grid that they are proficient at beautiful animated interactive designs is proving this ability with the same authenticity as this guy was able to? Resume 1: Beauty: 10/10 Animation: 9/10 Interactivity: 7/10 vs. Resume 2: A time investment in creating something that shows this. Resume 1 is extremely easy to fake, resume 2 is an authentic signal. You are free to throw resume 2 into the bin, but you are a fool if you do so.
- alan_cx 13y ago
  No, not confused. The fact you have widened the issue out to "all cases" seems to imply you might be. The aim of this resume is like all other resumes, to get an interview. If not, its not a resume, its part of a portfolio. Last point relies on making that comparison in the first place, which is a straw man. No reason to compare like that. Its your own invention.
  - lhnz 13y ago
    > The aim of this resume is like all other resumes, to get an interview (1). If not, its not a resume (2), its part of a portfolio (3). So what you're saying is that: a resume exists to get an interview (1), and therefore if it's not a resume and is a portfolio (3) it therefore does not exist to get an interview (2)? Fact: resumes exist to get interviews. Fact: portfolios also exist to get interviews. Fact: a resume can have the form of a portfolio piece and vice versa. The resume is a terrible way of validating ability. I would prefer a portfolio piece of a designer, or a repository of a developer to their resume. >> Last point relies on making that comparison in the first place, which is a straw man. No reason to compare like that. Its your own invention. I disagree. The intention of sending a resume in this form is likely to be that you want to be judged on the merits of the format you chose and the skills it required. Your original implication that they want to be judged with the same criteria as a black-and-white grid is almost certainly false.
nathan_long 13y ago
>> Does it facilitate the passing on of vital information? No.... it shows that the so called designer has failed to understand what the point of design is. Design is supposed to facilitate, NOT make things harder. If the "vital information" is "how many years of experience in software X does this person have?", you are correct. But why should that be the information you care about? If the information is "can this person make nice graphics and do amazing things in a browser?", yes, it does. It both gives the information and demonstrates its veracity. >> given a pile of competent resumes, I'd probably skip this applicant. Given the pile of companies who will think this is awesome, the creator will probably skip those who don't. >> Say I have a pile of resumes and what not on my desk, and this. I want to compare them I agree that the "pile of text" or "page of images" resumes will not be easy to directly compare to this person's. But does that really matter? The resumes are there so you can move on to an interview, right? Aren't you convinced that this person is fun and has great skills? I certainly am.
wooyi 13y ago
As someone who has seen lots of visual/interactive resumes and done research in this field (I created Vizualize.me, an infographic resume site), I thought this was well done. We can argue design wise about its merit, but the point is, the desired outcome was achieved - it got your attention, it's on the front page, and it was unique. When I read this resume, I'm not paying attention to the actual content but rather to how different and interesting this is. This isn't supposed to merely appeal to a HR person or make HR's job easier. That's a very narrow way of seeing it. The best way to get a job is NOT through the HR department. It's to get the attention of higher ups who make the hiring decision. They are the ones who would more likely appreciate the creativeness, dedication and work put into this.
- rimantas 13y ago
  You know, a woman screaming "Fuck you!" at every passer by on the street will also attract my attention. But I doubt I'd want to date her.
  - wooyi 13y ago
    I don't think your analogy is consistent with the site. There is nothing shocking, rude or inappropriate on the site. It's just different.
teq 13y ago
The purpose of a resume is to get attention and in that he's succeeded. Obviously this would not replace an actual resume for the purposes you need.
elwell 13y ago
Exactly. Could use a PDF link at the beginning.
whytaka 13y ago
The vital information the designer needed to communicate was his skills. He did not say it, he DEMONSTRATED it in the first second the user landed on his page. If this man applied to work with me, he would instantly be a strong candidate.
smsm42 13y ago
Resumes are mostly useless. First of all, people lie on resumes. All the time. Second of all, even assuming everything is 100% true, what does it means he knows CSS? I can learn some selectors and properties but be unable to apply them to create a visually appealing page, or I can remember nothing but be able to create stunning sites while constantly looking up technical details (just to remove the doubt, real people are neither, it is the extremes). If he worked on project SuperPowerX in Yet Another Big Business Corp., how do you know if he was the most awesome engineer there or just muddled through and had everybody else pick his slack? Of course, you have an interview, but you can only learn the most basic things in the interview. You can do offline interviews - like homework of a kind - but it introduces significant delays in the process. The best candidate I have ever interviewed (unfortunately, we didn't end up hiring him, but not for the lack of effort from our side) came to the interview with examples of his code and explained what his code does and why he did it this way. Everybody loved that. Unfortunately, almost nobody does it. Having a place where the candidate shows what he can do - prior to the interview - is awesome, plain and simple. It immediately removes a whole layer of questions for the decision maker - you know who you're talking to, what they are capable of, how they prefer to do it at some level, etc. - and makes the decision much easier to make and less risky.
- reledi 13y ago
  > The best candidate I have ever interviewed [...] came to the interview with examples of his code and explained what his code does and why he did it this way. Everybody loved that. Unfortunately, almost nobody does it. Almost nobody does it because it's not expected. Why not ask future applicants to bring in some code samples and walk through it?
  - smsm42 13y ago
    Well, unfortunately that's not how the interview process is set up (and I personally have many other things to do other than to tilt at this particular windmill). However, post-factum, it seems very natural thing to do - I might probably do it if/when I ever interview for a position where it is relevant (though I might just bring a tablet in and show some code in opensource repose). I don't see why it's not expected - I haven't seen anyone who would find it inappropriate. It's not always possible - some people just don't have code suitable for presenting or sufficiently non-IP-encumbered to present - but if you're lucky to be able to do it, why not?
AJ007 13y ago
From what I've seen I am guessing about .01% of web designers out there could do what he did, even with ripping code off from someone else.

by alan_cx 13y ago

wodow 13y ago

Would a single, promiment link at the start to a vanilla CV/resume have negated this? Then you would have the best of both worlds.

drsim 13y ago
Spot on. There's no doubt as a candidate you need to be comparable but you differentiating yourself is a multiplier. I applied for a marketing job at a fire safety firm. I'd never worked under a marketing job title (business development was my background) so I needed to differentiate. I burned off the bottom of my cover letter with some cheesy line like 'let me set your marketing on fire'. Got the interview.
alan_cx 13y ago
Partly, yes. The link would be called "Portfolio".

glanotte 13y ago

In that case, I think it works for both parties. He ruled you out as a potential employer. The person who admires it would probably see the candidate as a good fit.

adamb_ 13y ago
Exactly. If a prospective employer can't see the value of you taking a calculated risk and creatively applying your skills before you're hired, what makes you think they will afterward?

FLUX-YOU 13y ago

1. Send email requesting a 2 page resume 2. Add to resume pile Done! This situation should never occur on your behalf: Say I have a pile of resumes and what not on my desk, and this.

teh_klev 13y ago
>"Send email requesting a 2 page resume" It's an extra step in the process for the hiring bod, the resume should come before this. Also first time load on IE, Chrome and Firefox did this: http://i.imgur.com/Wn62Rh4.png http://i.imgur.com/Wn62Rh4.png At first I thought this was some cryptic "why the lucky stiff" malarky. Only after hitting refresh did the site load properly, I almost closed the tab, he might not be so lucky with someone who is a little less patient or in a rush. And finally what happens if the site goes down or gets slashdot/hn/reddited? Don't get me wrong, this is a nice demo of this person's skills (except for the use of the down arrow key to navigate right which is a minor usability foible) but it's a portfolio work and shouldn't be used solely as employer first contact when applying for a post.
- alan_cx 13y ago
  I got that too, except its just said "LOADING", none of the other stuff. Maybe if I had waited longer? As you say, refreshing it fixed the issue.
- oftenwrong 13y ago
  >And finally what happens if the site goes down or gets slashdot/hn/reddited? It would be great to have that many eyes on my resume.
  - chris24 13y ago
    This actually happened. The site's unavailable now.

__abc 13y ago

Really? I've been stuck with many piles of resumes and to have this show up would not only be a breath of fresh air vs the prototypical format, I GUARANTEE I would be talking about this one. Even if I didn't hire the person, I would be showing people this resume around the office. </$0.02>

alan_cx 13y ago
Well, yes, some people will, obviously.
- namenotrequired 13y ago
  How many do you think he needs? :)
notahacker 13y ago
Prototypical resumes don't get shared on social media sites either...

peterjmag 13y ago

If he's looking for an animation- or illustration-heavy position, I think this is perfect. I'm sure it'll catch the eye of at least a few creative directors out there, at which point the standard HR process becomes a bit moot. I mean, he can always send a plain old PDF resume if he finds himself applying online for some random position, but I doubt he'll need to. Anyway, I really like it. No, it's not perfect—he loses some points for listing Dreamweaver as a skill—but it's good fun, and it certainly makes him stand out.

pbhjpbhj 13y ago
Dreamweaver is probably used in corporate web design settings quite a lot being a part of the Adobe toolset and all. Perhaps he's pandering to his market? What tweaked the nose of my bete-noir was the entry of HTML and CSS under "Scripting and Programming languages" - but I think it's fair to say he knows what he's doing, seriously impressive design work going on there.
- phaus 13y ago
  To most non-coder types, to include management and hr people, HTML is a programming language and CSS is a question mark. For many of us who code, however, it really hurts to see someone misclassify nearly anything. I'd be willing to bet that he knows the difference and simply decided to simplify his resume by pretending he didn't.
  - pbhjpbhj 13y ago
    Indeed - as I said "I think it's fair to say he knows what he's doing".
phaus 13y ago
I see quite a few places advertise for Dreamweaver experience, so it makes sense to put it on a resume. He's first and foremost a designer, so I don't think it will hurt him too badly. Besides, just because someone uses a tool that you don't respect doesn't mean that they don't know how to code without it.

Tichy 13y ago

Do you really need all the details, since you can immediately see he has the skills? Why bother checking his university grades?

alan_cx 13y ago
Yes, and due diligence.

mikeryan 13y ago

I run an interactive agency in NYC. Showed this to my creative director and business partner and we pretty much reached out immediately. This kind of creativity and skill isn't easy to come by. YMMV.

phaus 13y ago
Good. Save that poor soul from having to keep working for Fox News. In all seriousness, I thought it was not only an awesome idea, but extremely well executed.

tlogan 13y ago

I never hired anybody because I got candidate's resume via HR or recruiter. It was always thru some connections and things like this.

russelluresti 13y ago

There are two assumptions in your post that I'd like to point out, and poke some holes in. First, you seem to be missing the actual point of a resume. No one makes decisions on who to HIRE based on a resume. The point of a resume is to get an INTERVIEW. Your resume could actually lack any details of the normal stuff that goes on one (education, experience, skills, etc) - but as long as what you provide gets you that interview then it's done its job. As someone who's done interviewing at interactive agencies, if I saw this I'd probably set up an interview. The second is your assumption about the purpose of a resume's design. Your thinking lies all on the company's side - making things easier for the recruiter and facilitating understanding of the reader; allow me to offer an alternate line of thinking. In an interview, it's not just the company determining if it wants to hire the prospect; it's also the prospect determining if she/he wants to work at that company. This resume has taken that to a step earlier. This person is purposely making his resume more creative and "difficult" to weed out prospective employers that don't value those things (this is actually something I do as well, though not to this extent). This person obviously wants to work for a very specific type of company and doesn't want to waste his time interviewing at companies that don't match his desire (like companies that use recruiters or where resumes go directly to HR people instead of hiring managers). So I'd argue that the design of his resume is specifically working very well at weeding out places where he wouldn't want to work and attracting the attention of places he would like to work.

alan_cx 13y ago
Point one. No, I never said or implied what you are saying. Point two. That is frankly so convoluted, I can only assume you just want to oppose what Im saying, but honestly don't know why.
- russelluresti 13y ago
  Point one - yes you did. You specifically mentioned comparing people based on resumes. You don't compare people when determining who to interview - you only compare people when determining who to hire. Point two - how is it convoluted that a person would want to target his resume to a specific type of company? Customizing your resume for the company you want to work for is the first basic principle in writing a resume. He just does it in such a way to also exclude companies he wouldn't want to work for.

lhnz 13y ago

>> But it shows that the so called designer has failed to understand what the point of design is. Design is supposed to facilitate, NOT make things harder. You are the confused person here. Design isn't meant to facilitate understanding in all cases. You're letting one specific use cloud your understanding of a general concept. Designers design with specific aims in mind. These could be expression of content, ease of use for a specific culture, expression of a feeling, wow factor, or rigid conformity to a set style/concept, etc. Do you believe that somebody that simply wrote in a black-and-white grid that they are proficient at beautiful animated interactive designs is proving this ability with the same authenticity as this guy was able to? Resume 1: Beauty: 10/10 Animation: 9/10 Interactivity: 7/10 vs. Resume 2: A time investment in creating something that shows this. Resume 1 is extremely easy to fake, resume 2 is an authentic signal. You are free to throw resume 2 into the bin, but you are a fool if you do so.

alan_cx 13y ago
No, not confused. The fact you have widened the issue out to "all cases" seems to imply you might be. The aim of this resume is like all other resumes, to get an interview. If not, its not a resume, its part of a portfolio. Last point relies on making that comparison in the first place, which is a straw man. No reason to compare like that. Its your own invention.
- lhnz 13y ago
  > The aim of this resume is like all other resumes, to get an interview (1). If not, its not a resume (2), its part of a portfolio (3). So what you're saying is that: a resume exists to get an interview (1), and therefore if it's not a resume and is a portfolio (3) it therefore does not exist to get an interview (2)? Fact: resumes exist to get interviews. Fact: portfolios also exist to get interviews. Fact: a resume can have the form of a portfolio piece and vice versa. The resume is a terrible way of validating ability. I would prefer a portfolio piece of a designer, or a repository of a developer to their resume. >> Last point relies on making that comparison in the first place, which is a straw man. No reason to compare like that. Its your own invention. I disagree. The intention of sending a resume in this form is likely to be that you want to be judged on the merits of the format you chose and the skills it required. Your original implication that they want to be judged with the same criteria as a black-and-white grid is almost certainly false.

nathan_long 13y ago

>> Does it facilitate the passing on of vital information? No.... it shows that the so called designer has failed to understand what the point of design is. Design is supposed to facilitate, NOT make things harder. If the "vital information" is "how many years of experience in software X does this person have?", you are correct. But why should that be the information you care about? If the information is "can this person make nice graphics and do amazing things in a browser?", yes, it does. It both gives the information and demonstrates its veracity. >> given a pile of competent resumes, I'd probably skip this applicant. Given the pile of companies who will think this is awesome, the creator will probably skip those who don't. >> Say I have a pile of resumes and what not on my desk, and this. I want to compare them I agree that the "pile of text" or "page of images" resumes will not be easy to directly compare to this person's. But does that really matter? The resumes are there so you can move on to an interview, right? Aren't you convinced that this person is fun and has great skills? I certainly am.

wooyi 13y ago

As someone who has seen lots of visual/interactive resumes and done research in this field (I created Vizualize.me, an infographic resume site), I thought this was well done. We can argue design wise about its merit, but the point is, the desired outcome was achieved - it got your attention, it's on the front page, and it was unique. When I read this resume, I'm not paying attention to the actual content but rather to how different and interesting this is. This isn't supposed to merely appeal to a HR person or make HR's job easier. That's a very narrow way of seeing it. The best way to get a job is NOT through the HR department. It's to get the attention of higher ups who make the hiring decision. They are the ones who would more likely appreciate the creativeness, dedication and work put into this.

rimantas 13y ago
You know, a woman screaming "Fuck you!" at every passer by on the street will also attract my attention. But I doubt I'd want to date her.
- wooyi 13y ago
  I don't think your analogy is consistent with the site. There is nothing shocking, rude or inappropriate on the site. It's just different.

teq 13y ago

The purpose of a resume is to get attention and in that he's succeeded. Obviously this would not replace an actual resume for the purposes you need.

elwell 13y ago

Exactly. Could use a PDF link at the beginning.

whytaka 13y ago

The vital information the designer needed to communicate was his skills. He did not say it, he DEMONSTRATED it in the first second the user landed on his page. If this man applied to work with me, he would instantly be a strong candidate.

smsm42 13y ago

Resumes are mostly useless. First of all, people lie on resumes. All the time. Second of all, even assuming everything is 100% true, what does it means he knows CSS? I can learn some selectors and properties but be unable to apply them to create a visually appealing page, or I can remember nothing but be able to create stunning sites while constantly looking up technical details (just to remove the doubt, real people are neither, it is the extremes). If he worked on project SuperPowerX in Yet Another Big Business Corp., how do you know if he was the most awesome engineer there or just muddled through and had everybody else pick his slack? Of course, you have an interview, but you can only learn the most basic things in the interview. You can do offline interviews - like homework of a kind - but it introduces significant delays in the process. The best candidate I have ever interviewed (unfortunately, we didn't end up hiring him, but not for the lack of effort from our side) came to the interview with examples of his code and explained what his code does and why he did it this way. Everybody loved that. Unfortunately, almost nobody does it. Having a place where the candidate shows what he can do - prior to the interview - is awesome, plain and simple. It immediately removes a whole layer of questions for the decision maker - you know who you're talking to, what they are capable of, how they prefer to do it at some level, etc. - and makes the decision much easier to make and less risky.

reledi 13y ago
> The best candidate I have ever interviewed [...] came to the interview with examples of his code and explained what his code does and why he did it this way. Everybody loved that. Unfortunately, almost nobody does it. Almost nobody does it because it's not expected. Why not ask future applicants to bring in some code samples and walk through it?
- smsm42 13y ago
  Well, unfortunately that's not how the interview process is set up (and I personally have many other things to do other than to tilt at this particular windmill). However, post-factum, it seems very natural thing to do - I might probably do it if/when I ever interview for a position where it is relevant (though I might just bring a tablet in and show some code in opensource repose). I don't see why it's not expected - I haven't seen anyone who would find it inappropriate. It's not always possible - some people just don't have code suitable for presenting or sufficiently non-IP-encumbered to present - but if you're lucky to be able to do it, why not?

AJ007 13y ago

From what I've seen I am guessing about .01% of web designers out there could do what he did, even with ripping code off from someone else.