interviewing: The Land of the Rising Fig

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > YOSPOS > interviewing: The Land of the Rising Fig

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ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

When I got hired at a game streaming startup they needed someone who was an expert on Ubuntu and on Wine.

I was found by an external recruiter who researched that I was Ubuntu's Wine maintainer. The first point of contact was direct message via Freenode IRC after asking me in the #winehq channel.

I've shared this story with quite a few people, and the consensus seems to be that this was the best external recruiter story you will ever hear in your lifetime.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2018 10:24

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# ¿ Oct 4, 2023 11:46

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Notorious b.s.d. posted:

the joke is that you were grossly unsuitable

you were a volunteer for Ubuntu who broke the wine packages from upstream, nothing more

I automated half my job and taught interns to do the other half, then got laid off.

# ¿ Feb 8, 2018 09:59

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Gazpacho posted:

a novice who admittedly struggles with programming, writing their first web apps, will produce shitpiles regardless. at least with PHP they can do it quickly

If you voluntarily start a PHP project and put that in your resume you will run into far more prejudice than if you use any other language, even a parody one.

Telling someone to do that is moderately bad technical advice and horrible career advice.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2018 01:40

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Trimson Grondag 3 posted:

it's part of the compensation discussion. I had a similar situation with some commission I'd forgo when I was leaving a job so I approached it as a 'make good' - I'm going to be out X, what's the best way of dealing with it so that I'm not out of pocket. in my case it translated to a little more base salary that would cover the gap in 18 months.

Also common is to offer you a larger signing bonus to compensate you for what you're giving up by leaving.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2018 04:43

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Notorious b.s.d. posted:

you would be surprised how many sysadmins can't code

like, at all

Yes, if you're doing "DevOps" or especially "SRE" then half your job should be automating the operational tasks and other sysadmin style bullshit.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2018 20:48

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

qhat posted:

In reality you'll be screaming at developers 90% of the time because they broke the build.

You should be automating your continuous build system to scream at them for you.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2018 23:51

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

This is a fascinating discussion.

I work on a team that has a sister team 8 hours away -- a true sister team, with a similar mandate and responsibilities. It's organized this way for reasonable oncall coverage, but a side effect is that we have to make a lot of remote-friendly processes anyway to enable proper collaboration.

And a side effect of that is that when I arrive and stay much later than my colleagues, it's not really an issue.

# ¿ May 5, 2018 06:07

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

jit bull transpile posted:

Oh also California taxes are a huge deal for someone coming from the Midwest where Republicans have been slashing taxes forever.

It's because explicit policy is to tax new residents more.

- Property taxes are anchored to 1970s prices unless the house was bought/sold, in which case they get get refreshed
- Cities assess new developments fees to cover the entire city's costs
- When cities relying on the above stop growing they go bankrupt and hilarity ensues

# ¿ May 6, 2018 03:10

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Notorious b.s.d. posted:

when you buy a car, you buy it for some amount less than the value you gain from it. ideally, that amount is small as possible, to maximize your consumer surplus

# ¿ May 7, 2018 04:35

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

qhat posted:

Senior management is floating the idea again of redirecting developers to do QA because QA is backlogged lol. Can't wait to leave this shithole.

qhat posted:

What you need to understand about this company is the senior management have literally no clue how to manage a software firm and think things like checking binaries into git to manage dependencies and not forcing developers to write unit tests is an acceptable practice in software engineering in 2018, and cannot nay will not be convinced otherwise.

Putting devs in QA sounds a bit like "forcing them to write tests"

# ¿ May 16, 2018 21:22

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Rex-Goliath posted:

if the tests are taking too long you need to beef up your test server or parallelize the tests. if your tests are flakey then write better tests

Large distributed systems can legitimately have tests that take a long amount of time. Some problems don't happen until you hit a particular size and complexity, and then you need a few large integration tests to cover the intersection of all that stuff.

# ¿ May 24, 2018 20:39

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Corla Plankun posted:

that sounds like something a really bad programmer would say hth

TimWinter posted:

I'll see you better tests and raise you more tests.
Cause I always got more tests.

Exactly. Bigger system, wider system, more and more tests needed. Wider coverage of integration tests = slower.

You can't expect a test for an edge case that only occurs when you have a million simultaneous users to not require a more elaborate test environment, and that means some amount of time.

# ¿ May 25, 2018 06:55

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Fiedler posted:

rolling back is theoretically an option but oops we didn't include that in our cd pipeline from the beginning so we've never tried it or tested it

This is part of your problem here

Rollbacks should be expected and normal operations, both for code and datasets. If you have an SRE org they should be able to rollback things without even knowing the details of what's in the newest release.

# ¿ May 26, 2018 03:23

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Bloody posted:

oh i found it. it was the stackoverflow thing

I entered some info on it and got some numbers. Then I clicked back and raised the experience by 5 years and got some lower numbers.

# ¿ Jun 16, 2018 10:33

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Ciaphas posted:

funny, i never thought to look for openings at the likes of microsoft or google or whoever, thanks for the reminder

not sure about google though, i've Heard Things about their work hours and culture, but hey, let he who lives in a glass house shut the gently caress up and all

Google has healthier work hours and conditions than any startup I've ever seen. Amazon...doesn't.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2018 22:44

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Progressive JPEG posted:

do they still have osha compliance portapotties?

I haven't heard of an instance of this since the opening of all the new Sunnyvale buildings (and the annexation of the Linked In campus)

Some parts of Google are definitely crowded startup tables. Other parts are much more spread out in brand new buildings. People complain about moving desks once a year (or more), and I suspect that's a side effect of all the shuffling from filling into new buildings.

# ¿ Jun 24, 2018 10:48

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

I'm way more productive in my current job than my last one and I'm pretty sure I'm not that different.

There's something to organizational efficiency. A lot of something.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2018 10:34

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

My team has 5 open headcount now and I am wondering if anyone has a Hydra they can refer

# ¿ Jul 6, 2018 22:45

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

A newish California law requires recruiters to give out salary ranges when they solicit you if you ask for them.

What's the proper way to do this?

# ¿ Jul 23, 2018 22:41

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

qhat posted:

Didn't realise it was standard interview practice for candidates to rate their loneliness levels and how popular they are with the opposite sex.

These are highly likely to be illegal questions. Some are tantamount to asking if you're disabled, gay, or similar. They serve no obvious job function.

EEOC posted:

These rules apply to any communications with or about the applicant, including application forms, interviews and reference checks.

https://www.eeoc.gov/employers/smallbusiness/faq/what_cant_i_ask.cfm

# ¿ Jul 27, 2018 05:07

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

qhat posted:

What are people's opinions of non-compsci grads with little experience but with a "diploma" from some random 10 week programming boot camp? I usually just throw the resume directly in the bin.

Would you prefer open source experience?

# ¿ Sep 1, 2018 10:35

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Just buy startups and get their engineers, duh

# ¿ Sep 25, 2018 06:23

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

When I was interviewing for my current job I misheard the interviewer's thick accent of "sorted" as "salted" and started coding up a completely unrelated solution on the whiteboard.

We figured out the source of the confusion midway though.

# ¿ Sep 30, 2018 20:34

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

I've observed the gradual reduction of "alcohol culture" within my company over the years and it has been 100% positive.

# ¿ Oct 3, 2018 02:26

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

When I was last job searching I had a lot of success using hired.com. At the time my only experience was a year in a startup and some open source work. I got requests for about 20 interviews, went on ~12, got 6 concrete offers (and a few others I was stringing along).

You put a profile up there and then the companies come to you. It's tech only, because only this industry is that desperate for staff.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2018 08:37

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Notorious b.s.d. posted:

it's not like programmers in, say, minnesota are unaware that wages double on the coasts.

I'm not sure that's true. We've had a few examples in this very thread.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2018 05:03

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Arcsech posted:

hired probably works great if you are in one of the top two big tech markets, and not at all otherwise. I got one lovely government contracting company from them with my looking location set to Denver and nothing else for months.

Set yourself as willing to work in at least one tech hub (bay area, new york).

That way you can at least be honest with yourself when you discard a dozen initial offers at higher pay.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2018 05:06

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Notorious b.s.d. posted:

you have no loving clue what their must-haves are in an interview. you could sense you hosed a thing up, but that is not likely to be the reason they do or do not hire you mang

For instance, they could be rejecting you cause you spent one year in a startup as a first real job and they know how those "fuckers" think.

Notorious b.s.d. posted:

you're loving terrible and i wouldn't hire you to pick up dogshit

i mean that in the literal sense, sadly. i've spent too much time with startup fuckers who think "office dogs" are a thing.

you, specifically, are dubiously competent in a role that is literally picking up poo poo

Or maybe they think they know something about your personal life.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2018 07:36

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

graph posted:

did this thread calm down or are there still too-angries around

mostly it's happy times for folks stacking figgies (or realizing how underpaid they are and are beginning their job search), though there was NBSD's meltdown

# ¿ Oct 20, 2018 03:48

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

TimWinter posted:

"The team liked you but we're not mature enough as a company..."

I think this means they perceive you as some sort of specialist or expert in something they don't want to bother with doing properly, like security or operations

# ¿ Oct 22, 2018 06:44

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Notorious b.s.d. posted:

folks hint around

maybe they think it is just small talk

lol if your company doesn't explicitly train you not to ask problematic questions even casually

# ¿ Nov 1, 2018 06:09

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Gazpacho posted:

just to be clear you're not going to double a $160k salary as a bay area computer toucher at a tech giant, they pay market rates and immigrants will eat your lunch

Salary alone no, but total comp is quite possible after senior level for a bit (5 years or so)

# ¿ Nov 3, 2018 04:16

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Notorious b.s.d. posted:

oh i thought you were kidding

RSU: restricted stock unit. a grant of actual stock to the employee. this is taxable as income.

And more to the point you're generally allowed to sell them pretty quickly after vesting. Treat them like cash and do so, as it's a dumb idea to buy or hold your own company's stock given you're already betting a good chunk of your career on them.

quote:

ISO: incentive stock option. an option to buy stock at a specified strike price. this gets fancy tax handling and i can't explain it all in one sentence.

ISOs were hot as gently caress for decades because they got nice accounting treatment for the firms that issued them. that stopped at some point, for reasons i do not understand. now RSUs are the new hotness

The accounting reason was that for some reason you could claim ISOs had "no cost" on your balance sheet. And in some sense they were "free", since the cost came entirely out of shareholders rather than out of money already on the corporate books.

This is obvious nonsense as the whole point of accounting is to give shareholders an accurate idea of where the firm stands.

# ¿ Nov 3, 2018 05:03

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Do tech interviews in sneakers and a t-shirt.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2018 07:15

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

Notorious b.s.d. posted:

that's how you end up working for startups and pretending to be a ubuntu expert

Yes, I wore my Ubuntu T-shirt when I interviewed at a startup that needed an Ubuntu and Wine person. One of my interviewers noticed and complimented me on it. Another complimented the Ubuntu backpack I'd brought my computer in. I got that job, my first "real" job with salary and benefits and so on.

A year later I'd picked up devops experience, automated half my job, and taught interns to do the other half. The startup started running out of money and laid me off along with others. I got 85k for that year of work, which was way more than I'd ever hoped for up to that point in my life. I felt rich and built up savings by living like I was still in college. But comp like that is really low for Silicon Valley.

I stayed unemployed for about 8 months practicing python on solo projects and decided I should start looking for work again. I did the hired.com thing around the same time a recruiter from BigCo reached out. Offers ranged from 85 to 145k from the Hired interviews, all in 30 to 300 person companies in Silicon Valley. By November I was working again, the BigCo offer was best. My first year I got 156k total comp at the same level new grads come in; 4 years later I'd brought in 256k. And I felt underpaid, as coworkers are actively sharing comp data. This is the Silicon Valley labor market for "people like me"

BigCo jobs pay way more than startups. And you get swarmed by recruiters if you ever want to leave. I highly recommend it if you have the option.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2018 23:25

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

raminasi posted:

my boss told me today in a surprise 1-on-1 that the bonus pool he's getting to work with is stupid small and that the only way i'm going to get what i deserve is to find a new job (not in those exact words but that was the sentiment)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVkLVRt6c1U&t=120s

# ¿ Nov 16, 2018 01:19

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

elite_garbage_man posted:

Welp it looks like my turkey day vacay just got turned into interview prep. Wasn't expecting anything over the holidays but I've touched base (possibly space docked) with one of the BIG 5 and an investment firm. It also looks like I can get a referral to another big company via my roommate's uncle.

in b4 nintendo

do nintendo and sony count as "the games industry"?

if so don't work there

# ¿ Nov 22, 2018 02:55

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

qhat posted:

What's it like to work at EA? One of their recruiters hit me up recently, I've heard from some very reliable people that it's 10x better for work life balance these days than it was a decade ago.

10 times 0 is still 0

# ¿ Dec 7, 2018 04:43

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

When you're ready to retire you have an obligation to take a job at one of these "unlimited vacation" companies and then go on a vacation that lasts until they change the policy.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2018 09:50

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# ¿ Oct 4, 2023 11:46

ShadowHawk: Jun 25, 2000; CERTIFIED PRE OWNED TESLA OWNER

pointsofdata posted:

I get 25 days at financial institution, and took 24.5 this year.

Just saw one place offering 30 and was like "looks great" but actually it was a scam and the 30 included public holidays.

There are about 9-12 public holidays depending on how you count things. So that place was basically 20 days vacation, which isn't the best but not quite the worst either.

The bigger question is how sick time is handled.

My first startup job gave 15 days PTO and 9 corporate holidays, and I ended up using most of the PTO for sick time.

At the start my bigco job gave 15 days vacation, 12 corporate holidays, and unlimited sick time. I can take the sick time without being bothered. Last year vacation went from 15 to 20, and next year will be 25.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2018 21:51

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