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This is so true, also why you have a defacto ageism that in many cases pushes you out of employment at or around 40 despite having achievements like being publi

by shams93 11y ago

This is so true, also why you have a defacto ageism that in many cases pushes you out of employment at or around 40 despite having achievements like being published by MIT press. Companies are also so specific about frameworks if you don't have 5 years experience in some completely obscure php framework then obviously you just don't know php. Also the use of tests for language minutia that are irrelevant to production work. On top of that at least in Southern California we have a massive increase in outsourcing going on, still plenty of low paid design jobs but the higher paid development jobs are fleeing from here at least.

smil 11y ago
Though I'm on Hacker News, I'm not a software developer. I would have thought it obvious that everyone would shift their hiring practices to be community-based, by looking at GitHub. I suppose most companies, even in the so "progressive" tech industry, are closed systems with little connection to anything in the outside world. In reality, Silicon Valley startups are just small corporations in the digital era. There is no disruptive about them at all. For the intelligent business person, the lesson to learn here is that design, development and production processes need to be integrated with community. Either like with Automattic and Wordpress, or by going open source on GitHub. All but a few closed companies will die over the next decade because they are unable to hire well.
- autokad 11y ago
  i dont see huge value added by looking at someone's github, maybe they dont use it, maybe they published someone else's code, maybe it was done in a group project and they didn't really do anything, maybe its private, etc etc. i'd rather see a portfolio of things (end products) they have done, see what they are excited about, and ask them about it. like 'oh, you learned ROR on your own while doing your undergrad and made site x?' and go from there.
  - smil 11y ago
    I mean having a community of open source contributors around your product that you already know and have in some ways worked with, and can hire without the adversarial interview process. That way, you wouldn't need to use useless markers like degree, age, location, university, past employment etc.
    - autokad 11y ago
      yeah if you have that you certainly know pertinent information about the would be candidate
TheAceOfHearts 11y ago
I find ageism perplexing. I've had a chance to work with a couple of older engineers that have >20 years of experience, and it's absolutely outstanding. They often have so much to teach you, and they can help point you towards the right direction.

by shams93 11y ago

smil 11y ago

Though I'm on Hacker News, I'm not a software developer. I would have thought it obvious that everyone would shift their hiring practices to be community-based, by looking at GitHub. I suppose most companies, even in the so "progressive" tech industry, are closed systems with little connection to anything in the outside world. In reality, Silicon Valley startups are just small corporations in the digital era. There is no disruptive about them at all. For the intelligent business person, the lesson to learn here is that design, development and production processes need to be integrated with community. Either like with Automattic and Wordpress, or by going open source on GitHub. All but a few closed companies will die over the next decade because they are unable to hire well.

autokad 11y ago
i dont see huge value added by looking at someone's github, maybe they dont use it, maybe they published someone else's code, maybe it was done in a group project and they didn't really do anything, maybe its private, etc etc. i'd rather see a portfolio of things (end products) they have done, see what they are excited about, and ask them about it. like 'oh, you learned ROR on your own while doing your undergrad and made site x?' and go from there.
- smil 11y ago
  I mean having a community of open source contributors around your product that you already know and have in some ways worked with, and can hire without the adversarial interview process. That way, you wouldn't need to use useless markers like degree, age, location, university, past employment etc.
  - autokad 11y ago
    yeah if you have that you certainly know pertinent information about the would be candidate

TheAceOfHearts 11y ago

I find ageism perplexing. I've had a chance to work with a couple of older engineers that have >20 years of experience, and it's absolutely outstanding. They often have so much to teach you, and they can help point you towards the right direction.