ITA Software hiring hackers

[mpresh]

Hello, If you are interested in a hacker position for a hacker company in Kendal Square (very close to MIT) send me your resume. A lot of our software is in Lisp and we have a true hacker culture. Feel free to contact me.

My email is mpresh@gmail.com. I am not a recruiter, I work for ITA and follow hacker news. I noticed quite a few people maybe interested in ITA.

Our culture is very comparable to that of Google. Looking forward to hearing from you.

http://www.itasoftware.com

-Mike

[thorax]

For sport over the years, my friends and I have worked through many of ITA's great programming puzzles. I've even used one of their old puzzles (Addagram) in (surely) 100+ interviews where I walk candidates through building up the different considerations in this puzzle. It degenerates or upgrades well for the level of engineer being hired, and when we hire them, it's not uncommon for those engineers to come back with me and work through it some more.

Oddly, one of my friends (absolutely brilliant guy) sent ITA a few solutions and they interviewed him. I know an interview isn't overly efficient, but I lost a good bit of respect for ITA when they didn't offer this guy a position or further interviews. The guy is brilliant and dedicated-- it's always possible that doesn't come through in any given interview. Still, it's good as it means it's easier to get this fellow involved in my startup when needed.

Add-a-gram for the curious: http://itasoftware.com/careers/puzzle_archive.html?catid=39#...

[jmagar → thorax]

http://addagram.mytestbench.com/

I too have played with that one, but I used JavaScript... These problems are engaging enough to keep you interested, especially when you are trying out a new language. The challenge is significant, and the optimizations required to solve these help you explore some the deeper depths of a language, when compared to a "hello world!" type of problem.

[thaiyoshi → jmagar]

These types of puzzles are also fun to tinker with to pass time during a long road trip (provided you're with the right people).

[prakash]

When I needed to understand the complexity of travel search, booking engines, routes, etc. I came across "Computational Complexity ofAir Travel Planning" talk from one of their founders -- fascinating stuff from a understanding the industry and a computer science perspective.

www.demarcken.org/carl/papers/ ITA-software-travel-complexity/ITA-software-travel-complexity.pd

[alx → prakash]

Correct url to the paper: http://www.demarcken.org/carl/papers/ITA-software-travel-com...

[prakash → alx]

my bad. thanks Alx.

[j2d2 → prakash]

I'm fairly sure the twisted framework for python was also developed here... If not created, then it certainly has major players at ITA.

[neilk]

Our culture is very comparable to that of Google.

You know, this isn't a big recommendation for me any more. When I think of Google, I think of a grand deception, or a gilded cage. Or a company that used to have productive chaos and now just has internal disorder. A place that encourages regression to childhood dependence, rather than mature creativity.

Maybe you should say "Google circa 1998-2003"?

[babul]

I see many software companies post (recruitment) puzzles on their sites and you and actually tell a lot about the company by the puzzles they use.

[babul → babul]

I like to play puzzles like this just to get in to different mindsets from my own. Often I find it is better to do it yourself, and then have another go using the tips provided. Sometimes it helps me into different ways of thinking than I would normally take.

[RobertL]

This makes a lot of sense. IMHO hackers are the best programmers. I've always been surprised that there hasn't been more acknowledgement of this fact by the big names in the business.