3 ms·

Is this always nepotism, or does it have something to do with the reluctance some organizations have in firing someone?

by japhyr 12y ago

DeusExMachina 12y ago
"Never attribute to malice what is sufficiently explained by incompetence". Nepotism is not necessary. In one company I worked for, the interviews were done by the self proclaimed CTO (which was one of the founders of the company) which was actually a dentist with no tech knowledge whatsoever. Of course in this case the interviews were just generic chats, with no technical question.
- BSousa 12y ago
  I agree. I once was offered a job for director of engineering of a big financial firm in the UK based on a couple chats over the phone with the CEO and some tech guy (don't remember the title). With the CEO, I just chatted a bit in general about my past and my future, with the tech guy, mostly explained my past, talked maybe 5 minutes about tech (design patterns or something) and that was it. No code, no hard technical questions on what to use what or when, nothing. I know a lot of people that didn't have the skills for that job but their attitude and bullshitting techniques would probably have gotten them the job. And this was a very successful company handling millions in revenues and working with the major banks.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
hibikir 12y ago
This also happens in places where people are hired 'in bulk', and where technical questions can be answered by rote. Even when your standards are higher, it's still easy to hire people that are just slightly more incompetent, just by not doing a coding assignment. This is why, at least around here in the Midwest, it's easy to stereotype other programmers by just looking at the last few companies they worked for. Came from XYZ? I won't even suggest an interview, because their architects would barely be junior devs here. Came from ABC? You don't need a screening, because you'd not have lasted two years there if you aren't at least decent. This is the real reason hiring through networking is so prevalent around here. If someone competent vouches for you enough to bring your resume forward, chances are they'll at least not embarrass themselves in a simple interview that asks for a little bit of coding. The reluctance of accepting a mistake in hiring is also an issue too, but I see more of that when we add both time and changing standards. For instance, I know of a big company that started with a really low talent level. They somehow managed to hire better people than they had, as time went by, but promotions have a lot to do with seniority. So you have a team of 'architects', that are supposedly in charge of things, but that, really, are worse at their job than the people that they are currently hiring. So what happens there? They have this nice cycle of hiring developers, having the good ones see that they will have to spend their time there arguing with architects that were never that talented, and whose skills are now outdated. But the architects have been there so long, they are part of the scenery. They'll never quit, as they'd never pass another interview for their experience level somewhere else, but they'll never leave their spot open unless they are fired. And management will not fire them, because they are old buddies. That's how organizations decline.
zo1 12y ago
I know in South Africa, where I live, you have a third reason. And fourth. 3. There are regulations in place that disallow you from firing employees easily. Even if they're incompetent, they can only be fired outright if they break their contract in some really big/obvious way. So they're forced to follow the motions, giving warning letters, eventually having a meeting to discuss it, etc, and only after that has all been done, can they dismiss the employee. 4. Affirmative action quotas. Theoretically sound and noble. But in practice just means that if there is a shortage of said "group", then you are invariable forced to hire sub-standard individuals, and keep them. Sad, but true. Funny aside from above. We once had a junior that was hired fresh from undergrad school, with the idea that they'd be trained up to speed. They were trained by the company (while getting a salary) for, I think, about a year before they were passed off as real junior developers in to the company. Said junior had the nerve to chuckle/mock me because I had an "IT" degree, instead of his fancy CS degree. In reality, he couldn't code a coherent piece of code to save his life. We spent countless wasted hours (this was after he finished the internal training) trying to at least get him to contribute something, anything even non-coding related. In the end, once he got his 9month/1year experience, he jumped ship. Probably to trick another company into paying him to sit around "learning".

Is this always nepotism, or does it have something to do with the reluctance some organizations have in firing someone?

by japhyr 12y ago

Is this always nepotism, or does it have something to do with the reluctance some organizations have in firing someone?

"Never attribute to malice what is sufficiently explained by incompetence". Nepotism is not necessary. In one company I worked for, the interviews were done by the self proclaimed CTO (which was one of the founders of the company) which was actually a dentist with no tech knowledge whatsoever. Of course in this case the interviews were just generic chats, with no technical question.

BSousa 12y ago
I agree. I once was offered a job for director of engineering of a big financial firm in the UK based on a couple chats over the phone with the CEO and some tech guy (don't remember the title). With the CEO, I just chatted a bit in general about my past and my future, with the tech guy, mostly explained my past, talked maybe 5 minutes about tech (design patterns or something) and that was it. No code, no hard technical questions on what to use what or when, nothing. I know a lot of people that didn't have the skills for that job but their attitude and bullshitting techniques would probably have gotten them the job. And this was a very successful company handling millions in revenues and working with the major banks.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

hibikir 12y ago

This also happens in places where people are hired 'in bulk', and where technical questions can be answered by rote. Even when your standards are higher, it's still easy to hire people that are just slightly more incompetent, just by not doing a coding assignment. This is why, at least around here in the Midwest, it's easy to stereotype other programmers by just looking at the last few companies they worked for. Came from XYZ? I won't even suggest an interview, because their architects would barely be junior devs here. Came from ABC? You don't need a screening, because you'd not have lasted two years there if you aren't at least decent. This is the real reason hiring through networking is so prevalent around here. If someone competent vouches for you enough to bring your resume forward, chances are they'll at least not embarrass themselves in a simple interview that asks for a little bit of coding. The reluctance of accepting a mistake in hiring is also an issue too, but I see more of that when we add both time and changing standards. For instance, I know of a big company that started with a really low talent level. They somehow managed to hire better people than they had, as time went by, but promotions have a lot to do with seniority. So you have a team of 'architects', that are supposedly in charge of things, but that, really, are worse at their job than the people that they are currently hiring. So what happens there? They have this nice cycle of hiring developers, having the good ones see that they will have to spend their time there arguing with architects that were never that talented, and whose skills are now outdated. But the architects have been there so long, they are part of the scenery. They'll never quit, as they'd never pass another interview for their experience level somewhere else, but they'll never leave their spot open unless they are fired. And management will not fire them, because they are old buddies. That's how organizations decline.

zo1 12y ago

I know in South Africa, where I live, you have a third reason. And fourth. 3. There are regulations in place that disallow you from firing employees easily. Even if they're incompetent, they can only be fired outright if they break their contract in some really big/obvious way. So they're forced to follow the motions, giving warning letters, eventually having a meeting to discuss it, etc, and only after that has all been done, can they dismiss the employee. 4. Affirmative action quotas. Theoretically sound and noble. But in practice just means that if there is a shortage of said "group", then you are invariable forced to hire sub-standard individuals, and keep them. Sad, but true. Funny aside from above. We once had a junior that was hired fresh from undergrad school, with the idea that they'd be trained up to speed. They were trained by the company (while getting a salary) for, I think, about a year before they were passed off as real junior developers in to the company. Said junior had the nerve to chuckle/mock me because I had an "IT" degree, instead of his fancy CS degree. In reality, he couldn't code a coherent piece of code to save his life. We spent countless wasted hours (this was after he finished the internal training) trying to at least get him to contribute something, anything even non-coding related. In the end, once he got his 9month/1year experience, he jumped ship. Probably to trick another company into paying him to sit around "learning".