We used a similar process to weed out Support candidates. its amazing how
many could not even with an Open internet test. Mainly I didn't care if
they got it 100% I wanted to see the process they went through. did they
google an error. did they look for similar issues etc.


On Thu, Dec 1, 2022 at 2:49 PM David Schwartz via PLUG-discuss <
plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:

> Sorry, but this would prevent most people who work for big corporations
> from ever getting hired.
>
> It might work for smaller companies trying to sift through a bunch of
> applicants and they need a way to get a little more insight into their
> abilities.
>
> I’ve always been amazed at the off-hours interestes of other devs where
> I’ve worked. They seem to go in one of two directions:
>
> 1) they spend time off-hours working on stuff they enjoy that’s unrelated
> to their job; or
>
> 2) they leave the programming at work and  prefer spending time on totally
> different things.
>
> I’ve met a few folks who like plaing with open-source projects, but none
> of them ever said they thought it made a difference in terms of getting a
> job.
>
> Keep in mind, these are big engineering companies, not small shops that do
> things like build websites. Graphic artists have “portfolios”. Programmers
> have “knowledge”. Code embodies knowledge, but doesn’t always reflect it.
> Most of what you’ll see is how the organize their code, what their coding
> style might be like, what they comment and don’t comment, and if you’re
> good enough to recognize different design patterns in the code then you can
> get some idea of how they think. If you run the software, maybe you can see
> their UI skills.
>
> However, the chances of what you’re looking at having any relevance to the
> job at hand is not very good, based on my experience on both sides of the
> hiring fence.
>
> Reading code is a slow tedious process that leaves more questions than
> answers. I want to know how you think and solve problems.
>
> I was working at a place as a contractor and we had to hire four more
> people on the team. Someone arranged for a headhunter, and he showed up one
> day with an 18” pile of resumes. After about the first dozen or so they all
> started to look the same. The two other colleagues working with me bugged
> off and refused to waste their time. What do you do in that case?
>
> We decided to write up a short questionaire with four questions that gave
> us a lot of insight into their understanding of some problems we were
> dealing with in our code. We had the headhunter send it out and asked them
> to answer to the best of their ability and return it. (Only about half did,
> which was really helpful.) We weren’t looking for anybody to answer all
> four like it was a Master’s Thesis. We just wanted to filter out those who
> had such a limited knowledge of what we were doing that we didn’t have to
> even waste our time interviewing them. From that perspective, looking at
> code on github is far more time-intensive than scanning a resume and four
> more detailed tech questions that applied very closely to our project.
>
> If someone at a prospective employer has time to waste going through my
> github code looking to be impressed, I don’t want to work there because
> their priorities are messed-up. I can get what I need just talking with
> you.
>
> -David Schwartz
>
>
>
>
> On Dec 1, 2022, at 9:46 AM, Stephen Partington via PLUG-discuss <
> plug-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org> wrote:
>
> I will be brutally honest. When I review what someone has done the resume
> is less impressive than the work done when it comes to software.
>
> Anything you can opensource and share with the public do so. make a
> website that is based on the same domain as the same email you submit
> resume's on. link any working demos you may have. link your projects via
> git so they can look at what you make.
>
> Keep a project journal someplace and make that available.
>
> You can be the best dev in the world. but unless you can show off what you
> do nobody will have an idea.
>
> Resume's are for headhunters mostly. they look for buzzwords and
> consistent work. as well as references.
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------
> PLUG-discuss mailing list: PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
> https://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
>


-- 
A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from
rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.

Stephen