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

Tue Apr 7 05:59:45 PDT 2009

Folks (!peeps ;-) ,-

thanks for your replies, they provide much insight.

@Luis:

> I have never asked for code excerpts. We are much more interested in
> the candidate's analytical and problem solving skills.
>

Luis, this humble programmer salutes you. I'm all up for tests, which is the
equivalent of "cook me a dish" as opposed to "let me poke around your
kitchen" (although I know Paul Battley doesn't agree with this analogy).

@Sean, Andrew Stewart:

Very interesting that in the UK, there's this strictly industrial attitude
towards computer people, while the country has been at the forefront of the
digital revolution in the 20th century. Actually, computing came primarily
from England. The highest CompSci award is the Turing award (again, a Brit).
Many top researchers are from the UK (Tony Hoare, et al). I think it was E.
Dijkstra who once said that "the ultimate goal of all Computer Science is
the program", ie there should be very little "prestige gap" between a brainy
researcher and a coder. Yet, in the commercial UK, programmers are (*mainly*)
viewed as these low-level digital bureacrats.

We have to lean how to brand ourselves better I guess. Luckily, the Internet
provides just the right window for this. A programmer / developer today can
develop an app that could potentially be useful to thousands of people.
Therefore, develop for the Web. "Show, don't tell" is very easy to do on the
Web. The Web is the ultimate canvas on which a developer with ideas can
express him / herself.

By developing directly for the end user, we can get rid of our collective,
industrial karma and position ourselves exactly as who we are: Engineers who
combine strong abstraction skills with architectural creativity and
ingenuity, who understand design and social interactions, and who build
sites and apps of value to the broader public. We are at the forefront of
the technical revolution that transforms the work, socializing, and
entertainment habits of everyone today. We are its coders.

If that is not a strong brand, I don't know what else can be.

FWIW, if you use the word 'peeps' on a CV, you won't even be considered for
> a job ;)

Haha, I know. I don't use that word in my CV. I also use none of the Gordon
Ramsay stuff in my CV. Which is a bit of a shame, because I think he is
insanely cool. Here's someone with an extremely strong work ethic, an
evangelist of the quality standard for his industry, and who doesn't take
shit from anyone. In fact, I would like to be the Gordon Ramsay of web
development.

(GREEN BLINK TAGS KILL PEOOOOPLEEEE!!! *EXPLETIVE*)

Personally, though, I think attending LRUG and staying for the pub
> afterwards is a far better way of finding a Ruby job in London than
> sending your CV to a random recruiter. With or without a code sample.

Which bring us down to what started my membership at LRUG, and what is still
waiting to happen:

BEER.

Cheers,
Vahagn

On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 12:59 PM, Eleanor McHugh <
eleanor at games-with-brains.com> wrote:

> 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
> ----
> raise ArgumentError unless @reality.responds_to? :reason
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Chat mailing list
> Chat at lists.lrug.org
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>
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