> In every challenging software development job, you'll be solving problems you've never encountered before. The problem is, the vast majority of software deve

> In every challenging software development job, you'll be solving problems you've never encountered before. The problem is, the vast majority of software development jobs are not this. That was the point of the comic in the post. There is a whole lot of maintenance, API gluing, and spec work that needs doing. Even at the "elite" companies like Google. The current trend in hiring seems to be at least partially born of Google's ill-advised[1] strategy of hiring generic software engineers that could theoretically be slotted into any role at the company. Hire for a position. If that position involves challenging, novel problems then throw things like that at the candidates in the interview. If it doesn't, don't. [1] After they reached a certain point as a company