6 ms·

Must-Reads When Recruiting Programmers

73 points by klistwan 13y ago

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kdazzle 13y ago
Seems like they forgot Steve Yegge: https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/five-essential-phone-screen-questions https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/five-essential-pho...
darrellsilver 13y ago
In our experience, the best way to learn how to interview is to talk with hiring managers. The 2nd best way is to pretend you are one. We SWEAR by this book: Who (http://www.amazon.com/Who-The-A-Method-Hiring/dp/1400158389 http://www.amazon.com/Who-The-A-Method-Hiring/dp/1400158389) Skip to chapter 4. It's structured our interviews as we grow our team at http://thinkful.com/ http://thinkful.com/ as well as work with students to improve their resumes as junior engineers.
blindhippo 13y ago
Man I wish more employers in my local area (Calgary, Alberta) would read this article: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000050.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000050.html Every place I interview at thinks: - developers want to work in fishbowls ("fast paced environment") - thinks old/used furniture from the 80's is suitable for developers - assumes we want stock options as compensation (in a "start-up" hell no, give me actual stock or a real salary) - assumes 40-60k a year is a good salary for developers. Yeah, no, not in Calgary. ("but we're not Oil and Gas so we can't pay as much..." deal with it buddy) And since this isn't exactly a tech hotbed, most of us are forced to nod politely and take what we get offered (and maybe negotiate a third week of vacation if we're lucky).
- rhc2104 13y ago
  I don't know about how Canadian taxes work, but at least in the US, you have to pay taxes on stock you receive, even if they are illiquid (but with stock options, taxation does not occur until you exercise).
  - blindhippo 13y ago
    It's the same in Canada as far as I understand - but thing is, options aren't compensation unless the business is sold or goes public. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, in which case I'll have to change my mind on this. If I'm issued stock options in a privately held company at $1 per share, and I vest 200, I get $0 (the value hasn't changed since I was issued them). In order for the value to change, the company needs to be purchased or be listed on an exchange. No?
    - rhc2104 13y ago
      Okay, I misinterpreted "give me actual stock" as preferring stock to options. Your definition of "actual stock" seems to be publicly traded stock.
      - blindhippo 13y ago
        In a sense yeah. The share option agreements I've seen haven't provided a way to flip the options into proper shares in the company that are under my name. So the company boasts to me that I have "stock" in the company - I am a "owner" when in reality I'm not at all. I find it disingenuous. Unless I'm completely misunderstanding this - I can never get a clear answer on any of this stuff.
        Evbn 13y ago
        You seem confused. Private companies don't have any liquid stock to give. Options aren't the issue, just subtract salary minus share price and taxes to get net.
adrianhoward 13y ago
I've got three good old fashioned book recommendations: * Johanna Rothman's "Hiring Geeks that Fit" (https://leanpub.com/hiringgeeks https://leanpub.com/hiringgeeks) does what it says on the tin - her blog is a useful resource too http://www.jrothman.com/blog/htp/ http://www.jrothman.com/blog/htp/ * Andy Lester's "Land the Tech Job You Love" (http://petdance.com/book/ http://petdance.com/book/) is written for job seeker - but is actually a good read for folk on the recruiting side too [bias warning: I was one of Andy's tech reviewers on this book] * Lou Adler's "Hire With Your Head" which completely changed my approach to interviewing for the better and made it vastly more effective. His accomplishment based interviewing technique is very effective in my experience.

73 points by klistwan 13y ago

deleted 13y ago

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kdazzle 13y ago

Seems like they forgot Steve Yegge: https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/five-essential-phone-screen-questions https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/five-essential-pho...

darrellsilver 13y ago

In our experience, the best way to learn how to interview is to talk with hiring managers. The 2nd best way is to pretend you are one. We SWEAR by this book: Who (http://www.amazon.com/Who-The-A-Method-Hiring/dp/1400158389 http://www.amazon.com/Who-The-A-Method-Hiring/dp/1400158389) Skip to chapter 4. It's structured our interviews as we grow our team at http://thinkful.com/ http://thinkful.com/ as well as work with students to improve their resumes as junior engineers.

blindhippo 13y ago

Man I wish more employers in my local area (Calgary, Alberta) would read this article: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000050.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000050.html Every place I interview at thinks: - developers want to work in fishbowls ("fast paced environment") - thinks old/used furniture from the 80's is suitable for developers - assumes we want stock options as compensation (in a "start-up" hell no, give me actual stock or a real salary) - assumes 40-60k a year is a good salary for developers. Yeah, no, not in Calgary. ("but we're not Oil and Gas so we can't pay as much..." deal with it buddy) And since this isn't exactly a tech hotbed, most of us are forced to nod politely and take what we get offered (and maybe negotiate a third week of vacation if we're lucky).

rhc2104 13y ago
I don't know about how Canadian taxes work, but at least in the US, you have to pay taxes on stock you receive, even if they are illiquid (but with stock options, taxation does not occur until you exercise).
- blindhippo 13y ago
  It's the same in Canada as far as I understand - but thing is, options aren't compensation unless the business is sold or goes public. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, in which case I'll have to change my mind on this. If I'm issued stock options in a privately held company at $1 per share, and I vest 200, I get $0 (the value hasn't changed since I was issued them). In order for the value to change, the company needs to be purchased or be listed on an exchange. No?
  - rhc2104 13y ago
    Okay, I misinterpreted "give me actual stock" as preferring stock to options. Your definition of "actual stock" seems to be publicly traded stock.
    - blindhippo 13y ago
      In a sense yeah. The share option agreements I've seen haven't provided a way to flip the options into proper shares in the company that are under my name. So the company boasts to me that I have "stock" in the company - I am a "owner" when in reality I'm not at all. I find it disingenuous. Unless I'm completely misunderstanding this - I can never get a clear answer on any of this stuff.
      - Evbn 13y ago
        You seem confused. Private companies don't have any liquid stock to give. Options aren't the issue, just subtract salary minus share price and taxes to get net.

adrianhoward 13y ago

I've got three good old fashioned book recommendations: * Johanna Rothman's "Hiring Geeks that Fit" (https://leanpub.com/hiringgeeks https://leanpub.com/hiringgeeks) does what it says on the tin - her blog is a useful resource too http://www.jrothman.com/blog/htp/ http://www.jrothman.com/blog/htp/ * Andy Lester's "Land the Tech Job You Love" (http://petdance.com/book/ http://petdance.com/book/) is written for job seeker - but is actually a good read for folk on the recruiting side too [bias warning: I was one of Andy's tech reviewers on this book] * Lou Adler's "Hire With Your Head" which completely changed my approach to interviewing for the better and made it vastly more effective. His accomplishment based interviewing technique is very effective in my experience.