
How I went from stay-at-home-mum to landing my first web developer job - amrrs
https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-i-went-from-stay-at-home-mum-to-landing-my-first-web-developer-job/
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malvosenior
> _There was no white-boarding, no solving difficult algorithms on the spot
> and no trick questions._

> _I got through to the second stage on one job I applied for which was a take
> home coding exercise. The other interview I was offered the job on the
> spot._

This is how you interview. She obviously is very self-driven and a good
communicator. If she were hurled some leetcode, there's a good chance she
would have failed (as do so many devs with years more experience than her) and
yet even reading this post made me think she's a great hire.

Managers: fight to change your hiring process. Throw out coding tests,
leetcode and white board shenanigans. _Invest_ in your own skills so you can
quickly and accurately identify talented people. Take chances on unusual
backgrounds. Not only will you save a bunch of everyone's time, you'll have a
more organic culture and pick up diamonds that places like Google will pass
over every time.

~~~
notus
My favorite interviews are when they give me a take home project that takes
2-3 hours and then during the technical interview you go over the solution and
talk about ways to improve it. It gives applicants a chance to actually
prepare for the interview in a meaningful way and I personally am much less
nervous for this type of interview.

~~~
11thEarlOfMar
This is our approach. Choose one of five assignments, we ask for 100 lines of
code, take it home, take as much time as you need. When you come back, we do a
code walk through with the team.

We've hired only great people with this approach, and they've told me after
the fact that they really appreciated that it tested them in a natural manner,
rather than a type of competition.

~~~
manthedudeguy
> we ask for 100 lines of code

Why?

~~~
11thEarlOfMar
We don't want them to spend too much time. I tell them we don't expect them to
spend more than 2 hours, and we're looking for 100 lines. I don't think it's
reasonable to ask for much more of their time than that. Turns out they all
wind up spending 8+ hours and most really get into the task.

~~~
shantly
I love a rough lines/size guide and will be stealing that idea :-)

The biggest risk with those take-home projects is that you'll lose out on the
"2-3 hour project" because someone else spent 5-6 hours and had time not to
just finish it, but to make it look _very_ polished—unreasonably polished for
2-3 hours. So you either do it as directed and worry, or spend way more time
on it (enough that I'd probably just pass unless it was one _hell_ of a job)

Keep it small enough and you don't run into the thing where you're excluding
the semi-happily employed, competent devs, because they don't really _have_ to
put up with your shit to find new employment, which is the case with those
defined time (but not really) larger projects.

------
amrrs
Stories like this really make me how such a beautiful platform like
Freecodecamp is often underrated. Where I come from, India, making money by
running training centers is a huge business. Given the upskilling industry and
the madness about data science, everyone's making money with that tag (for
those who forgot Siraj Raval issue recently). But Freecodecamp is amazing that
it stuck to web development. It's zero cost - simply completely free. Yet it
can impact a lot more - like giving a social circle of programmers, a
community and ultimately a job , career.

Kudos to Quincy Larson and the community of FCC. His Indiehackers podcast is
an inspiring listen .

[https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/056-quincy-larson-of-
fr...](https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/056-quincy-larson-of-freecodecamp)

------
sonabinu
I did the same a few years back but took a different route. I did a few
classes at community college, then an MS during which I did a bunch of
internships before landing a full time opportunity. It was disheartening and
frustrating at times, but the trick that worked was sticking to it!

------
rpmisms
I love the interview questions. I, probably more than other devs, Google a ton
of stuff and iterate out to an efficient solution. My first idea is never
great, and I know it.

