
How To Identify A Lame Programming Job - fogus
http://www.codypowell.com/taods/2009/12/the-codypo-test-aka-8-questions-to-identify-a-lame-programming-job.html
======
enjo
Basically a list of this guys personal preferences.. lame.

Here is a foolproof method of filtering out bad programmer jobs:

If they ever use the words 'rockstar', 'ninja', or anything similar, run very
far away. If throughout the interview process they focus purely on pumping up
your ego run very far away. If all they can talk about is how they have
Rockband and Foosball, you got it, run very far away.

Great programming jobs are those in which you are solving interesting problems
surrounded by interesting people. If they have that they don't need 'ninjas'
and 'rockstars'. They don't need to talk about foosball (I'm not saying
Foosball is bad, it just shouldn't be the focus of your work). Instead,
they'll talk about interesting problems.

~~~
spudlyo
I'm sure there are great places to work where HR drones who want to sound cool
bandy about terms like _rockstar_ and _ninja_. I agree it's annoying, but it
doesn't mean anything IMHO.

~~~
pwnstigator
It's a strong warning sign. Anything to the effect of "we want rockstar
developers" suggests something unsaid-- that they consider most of the
applicants that they get to be of low-quality, which says more about them and
the mismatch between what they think they offer and how the market perceives
them than it does about the applicants.

It's like writing "please be cute" in an online dating profile.

~~~
demallien
I have to disagree with that, simply based on my current job. It's a big
corporation, but my particular team is just a group of 7 engineers who have
simply been told to design a brilliant product - we have massive control over
what the product does. The problems we face are very similr to those that you
get in a start-up, as we are building an entire product from scratch.

Yet, if you asked someone that hadn't worked there what they would expect the
atmosphere to be like working there, they assume that you're probably going to
be a cube-farm drone, putting out more paperwork than code. It _sounds_ like a
boring place to work, without actually being a boring place to work.

PS: If anyone is a Gentoo guru looking for work in Paris, don't hesitate to
contact me :-)

~~~
spudlyo
_PS: If anyone is a Gentoo guru looking for work in Paris, don't hesitate to
contact me :-)_

Sorry, I won't work at places where people use the term 'guru' to refer to
their workers. ;)

------
mahmud
_5\. Will I be maintaining any ancient system, and what's it written in?_

If you don't want to inherit legacy software, go work in a startup and enjoy
creating everything from scratch. Legacy software at least leaves you a work
culture and a process, not to mention a frame of reference. In a startup, not
only there is no much in-house software, there isn't even a division of labor.

~~~
petewarden
Call me perverse, but I love the archaeological side of dealing with legacy
software too. You start off with code that makes no sense at all, and
gradually as you brush away soil from the pot shards, a story emerges. Working
on porting Diablo to the PS1, there were tiny bits of inline assembler
scattered everywhere. Eventually the light dawned: the original programmers
had been struggling to understand C's signed/unsigned integer conversions so
they fell back to the x86 instructions they were more familiar with.

~~~
DLWormwood

        Working on porting Diablo to the PS1, there were tiny
        bits of inline assembler scattered everywhere.
        Eventually the light dawned: the original programmers
        had been struggling to understand C's signed/unsigned
        integer conversions so they fell back to the x86
        instructions they were more familiar with.
    

Dang, is that telling. Both shipped Diablo games have been know to be rife
with security related bugs, and that kind of coding artifact gives a good
indication of the quality of the programmers at Blizzard North it seems...

~~~
petewarden
As my lead reminded me at the time when I made a snide comment about their
quality: "We're sitting here porting it for peanuts, while they're busy
counting their royalties"

Much as I prize technical quality, that lesson stuck with me.

~~~
Oxryly
Blizzard didn't pay out much in royalties in those days. Now Diablo 2 was a
different matter...

------
joshu
I like the "what source control" question from the comments. They should use
one and it shouldn't be sourcesafe.

Many of these are pretty reasonable. Dunno that travel is that bad a
problem...

~~~
pwnstigator
Why would a developer be traveling frequently?

Also, business travel sucks, _especially_ if you're entry-level.

~~~
gaius
If your product is a "platform" then you may often be visiting customers to
work directly with their developers.

I agree on the travel. It can sound exciting from the outside, but airports,
taxis, hotels and meeting rooms look the same whatever city or country you're
in. Eating room service 5 nights a week gets old real quick.

~~~
joshu
Yeah, I guess so.

At one point I lived in NYC and worked in London. And loved it. Hell of a
commute, though.

------
strait
_4\. Would I work with a single monitor?_

Maybe three separate monitors is better than one, but even better is having
one really high quality monitor and learning to use virtual workspaces
efficiently. Binding the Super key - number key combinations; now I have 10
monitors.

~~~
roundsquare
Its a fair point, people like to work with different setups. However, I think
this is the more important point here:

 _If doubling your productivity isn't worth $200 to this company, then this
company may just be a really elaborate practical joke played by an eccentric
billionaire._

Whatever setup you like, the company should be willing to pay a reasonable
amount to get it for you.

------
asher
I think this list is more valuable to employers than to candidates. Employers
should be sensitive to the many hot buttons candidates have. Most of them are
proxies for appreciation and trust. Treat every touchpoint as a chance to show
your employees appreciation and trust.

For candidates, however, I'd advise focusing more on the big picture. Monitors
are not a strategic issue. At one company I simply brought in my own 21" CRT
rather than argue it. At another, I bought my own RAM and disk to upgrade my
workstation.

A candidate who is focused on these minor concerns might come across as
selfish, myopic and high maintenance.

Again, as an employer I would absolutely cater to these concerns. But as a
candidate I would try to forget them.

------
kabdib
Always ask who you will be working with. (My own preference is: If it's not a
group that I'll be learning useful things from, it's a waste of time).

Study at the feet of masters.

------
smikhanov
For me the best no-go sign are Dilbert strips pinned to the walls (though you
have to visit the office to see this.)

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
Interesting.

I just had cause to have a lengthy, off-the-record chat with one of our newer
employees. He said that he was stunned over the atmosphere in the office.
Everywhere else he's ever worked there's been underlying, very gentle
grumbling, even if people were generally happy.

By contrast, he says that the overwhelming feeling he's getting with us is one
of enthusiasm, interest, engagement and general contentment with the work, the
people and the place. He feels welcome, part of the team, and is amazed at the
general sense of good will.

And we have Dilberts strips pinned up in lots of places, partly because some
of them are funny, and perhaps partly because we are pleased they're not us.

~~~
smikhanov
Lucky you :)

I've mostly seen offices where people were using Dilbert strips to illustrate
_their own_ life in the office.

EDIT: For example this one appeared in one of my previous companies after
owners hired a "visionary" CEO: <http://www.dilbert.com/2004-04-17/>

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
Oh, I don't doubt that. My point was that it's not a universal "Don't Work
Here!" message. In our case it seems the staff are happy to put things up like
this because they are happy and secure and simply think the strips are funny.

It's the same with all the "629 signs your company is XXX" - they are
guidelines, indications, suggestions, and sometimes wrong. There are very few
absolutes.

Remember, Bayesian spam filters work because they look for several indicators,
good and bad, and combine them. The simply black/white, yes/no indications of
whitelists and blacklists don't work as well as taking several indicators into
account.

