[LRUG] Code samples: To do or not to do

[Eleanor McHugh]

On 7 Apr 2009, at 09:51, Anthony Green wrote:
> I think CVs are pointless. The only time one I've send out is  
> referred back
> to me is when then end up on some recruiters DB indexed by keywords.
>
> To dissuade timewasters I just point to my Linkedin/blog/github.
>
> Doing the phone / informal pub meetup is very important to me. I  
> don't want
> an employer to be like a dog chasing a car.
>
> I consider it essential to discuss coding practice, code reviews,  
> testing,
> deployment, company culture, conference allowance etc. For the last  
> several
> years I've used interviews to interview the employer far more than  
> they
> interviewed me. I was unfortunately once to get stuck in a job where  
> they
> placed no value on their employees and it took a long time to  
> extricate
> myself. Never again.

I had a similar experience many years ago so I take a pretty high- 
handed approach to interviews. Unless a potential employer can impress  
me with their willingness to treat employees as individuals and accept  
advice where it's backed by experience I tend to say 'thanks, but no  
thanks'. It saves a lot of pain for all concerned.

When I'm wearing the interviewer hat I avoid coding tests, portfolios  
or technical challenges and get down to the questions that I find most  
insightful: what were the candidate's worst projects and what did they  
learn from them.


Ellie

Eleanor McHugh
Games With Brains
http://slides.games-with-brains.net
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raise ArgumentError unless @reality.responds_to? :reason