
Another programming interview I blew - irishguy
I am an old fart. 47 years old. Thats dead in computer years. First computer at 16. 48k of memory. A closet nerd. closet. I don&#x27;t look like a computer guy. I know. I know. I have been told so many times. I go back. ms dos.. dbase qbasic. And I know the modern stuff. 20 year track record 
I won&#x27;t bore you. 10 years C# SQl server. Im playing with nodejs and vuejs now...<p>Anyway. I have been to 5 interviews this month 
and nobody gave me a fucking job. Programming has humbled me I know you can only know so much.
I blew 5 interviews this month. 5. Thats crazy.
Every single one of these interviews was somebody asking me some random shit. RANDOM shite and if I didn&#x27;t answer there random generated shite I didnt get the job. 
I should have been a dentist I would have gotten more respect and maybe more love. Any replies.
======
NTDF9
Bullshit interviews are part of the system now. The only way to beat it is
with interview-er accountability.

In interviews today, the expectation is that the candidate should be perfect,
do this, that, don't forget to do this. But the interviewer has no such
requirement. The interviewer can reject you because "They had a bad
day".....seriously, this is what companies say. Look at some answers here:
[https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-possible-reasons-of-
being...](https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-possible-reasons-of-being-
rejected-even-after-doing-very-well-in-an-onsite-coding-interview)

So the candidate has to be PERFECT but the interviewer can reject because they
are just HUMANS? How the hell does this make sense?

Maybe we need yelp for interviewers. A rating system will weed out bad
interviewers and bad company policies.

~~~
scorpioxy
I believe this is why Starfighters was being made; because the system is
broken. Too bad it didn't work out(not the CTF or stock game; the idea). I
wish there was a site where, in my own time, I can do some tasks to prove that
I can actually do what I've been doing for the past 15 years. As in, "here I
reversed a string and this is proof. now can we please discuss something
relevant to the role or am I being hired to reverse strings all day?"

~~~
lj3
But then the interviewer trots out the old adage "but we're not testing your
ability to reverse strings. I want to see how you approach solving problems."
And yet, a wrong answer is an almost guaranteed no hire. I can't tell if these
people believe their own bullshit or if I'm being lied to my face.

~~~
tluyben2
I don't know many of these interviewers (I myself interview but I would never
ask people to do these silly tests) but I spoken to one of them from Boston a
while ago at a party and he said he just has this list of questions and they
need to be answered correct; he himself would not even be able to _recognise_
if the person was attacking the problem right or wrong but he says 'I want to
see how you approach solving problems' as that is what he has been taught. So
in my 1 point empirical research I would say you are being lied to.

~~~
lj3
Well, now I know! thanks. :)

------
tiredwired
I'm 47, had plenty of shitty interviews. Forget about them, move on. I changed
jobs twice last year because one of the companies went bankrupt. All beyond my
control. I specialize in mobile app programming. If the interview strays much
beyond that I remind the interviewer of the specific type of job I am looking
for. If that does not work then I end the interview. If they did not read my
resume then they are wasting my time. For the last shitty interview the
interviewer was quizzing me about regex - apparently not being a regex expert
means I was not worth moving forward with. A couple days later I had an offer
from another company.

------
nojvek
I've taken a lot of shitty interviews. I have also interviewed many devs.

Testing a candidate in one hour is really hard.

CV's can be very deceiving. What I look for is folks who are good coders and
good communicators. I don't care about culture fit. Our team is diverse from
50 year Olds, 19 year Olds, males females, black, white, brown etc.

Having a github profile with interesting projects is a boon. Even better if
you've contributed to some meaningful open-source projects. This is great
because it gives lots of data. The issues you file, the commits, comments and
code give good insights about you. Much more than a one page CV.

I use the same question on every candidate and evaluate them.

I allow my candidates to use google/Bing, chrome console, whatever resources
they would usually use in day to day work.

I look for understanding of basic data structures like maps, sets and
techniques like recursion. I also give a ton of hints to guide in the right
path. I can only help though if the the candidate wants help. Some candidates
really don't get the hints even after multiple repeats.

Some candidates just dive into code and then get stuck. They confuse them
selves.

The best candidates are the ones who ask lots of clarifications at the start,
they break down the problem into little pieces without writing a single line
of code. They emulate a computer and trace the steps in an abstract manner.
They think like "to solve Z, I need A then do B and C and D." They then slowly
write code for the little steps.

I love candidates who can give me a deep dive into a subject they are an
expert on. I get to learn a ton on random things. Also gives insight on what
makes them tick.

Don't give up. Please keep on trying. Feel free to PM me for any help. I
really want you to succeed.

~~~
mdekkers
_Some candidates just dive into code and then get stuck. They confuse them
selves._

 _The best candidates are the ones who ask lots of clarifications at the
start, they break down the problem into little pieces without writing a single
line of code. They emulate a computer and trace the steps in an abstract
manner. They think like "to solve Z, I need A then do B and C and D." They
then slowly write code for the little steps._

My thoughts exactly

------
xrd
Get out and meet people at software meetups, etc. This is and always will be
the best way to get a job. If you are finding resistance down the path of
interviewing, go down a different path to find a job. Big companies like
Google will pretend it is the only way to get in, but that is a lie anyway.
Smaller companies are easier. If you find that you are struggling in that
venue, ask for help. Developing emotional intelligence is something you can do
easier in your older years, and some companies really value that.

------
CoolGuySteve
The proper answer is to sabotage the process.

If you go to an interview and they ask contrived questions, go to their page
on Glassdoor and post everything they asked.

Once their filter gets too noisy, they'll have to start interviewing for the
actual role they're trying to fill instead of this oral exam bullshit.

------
sova
I think you just need a pair of glasses, even if they are not prescription.
I'm in the same position as you and I think glasses are what makes the
difference. Almost hysterical to the point of tears, I know, but it seems more
true the more I experiment.

------
mattbillenstein
Keep at it -- places that don't have a thoughtful enough interview process to
ask you something practical and relevant aren't companies you probably want to
work at anyway.

~~~
sova
You got spunk

------
vonnik
The job market and hiring processes for software engineers are screwed up.

One problem is that it's hard to get good information about which candidates
and which companies are the ones you want, since the bad ones also pretend to
be good.

Another complication is that recruiters are often not technical, and the
hiring managers in startups are not always experienced, so you have to pass
through too highly imperfect filters.

I can tell you that, a couple years ago, there was so much demand for Ruby and
Python developers that good recruiters wouldn't even take the assignment of
looking for them, because they knew it was fruitless.

One way to get around the problem of imperfect information is just to build
stuff that resembles what you think people need, with the tools they advertise
that they are using, and then to post your code on Github. Or commit to an
open-source project. Really, the smart companies have scouts watching those
projects and if you show competence, reliability and culture fit (being nice)
you'll probably get an offer.

I used to write about this a bit from the point of view of a technical
recruiter, which is not popular on HN, but fwiw, it's good for SWEs to
understand the gatekeepers.

[https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141003230509-13992315-how-t...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141003230509-13992315-how-
to-reject-people-and-hire-them-later-a-handbook)

[https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140922170916-13992315-if-
yo...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140922170916-13992315-if-you-think-
the-job-hunt-sucks-try-recruiting)

[https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/job-markets-information-
probl...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/job-markets-information-problem-
chris-nicholson)

------
rosser
44, myself. I tend to interview well, which frankly surprises me, because I'm
on the whole not as good at people as I'd like to be. I think, though, the
thing that has best served me in that regard is walking into every interview
remembering that I'm interviewing the company, as much as it is me.

Are these people I can spend as much of my life with as I would by taking this
job? Do I respect them? Does the person I'd be reporting to seem like someone
I'd be okay reporting to?

I've no shit been in a place where getting this one, specific job was the only
chance I had — less than a month's burn rate in the bank, and with no other
prospects — but walking into an interview like that has, in whatever part,
landed me an offer every time.

------
ktRolster
_I should have been a dentist I would have gotten more respect and maybe more
love_

I have had similar thoughts.

~~~
D_Alex
I shudder at the thought of being a dentist. Imagine your first day on the
job, looking into people's mouths all day... then going home and thinking that
this is what you will do every working day for the next 40 years.

Dentists, I heard, have high rates of substance abuse, depression and suicide.
These are very talented people (they have to be to gain admission to
dentistry), who have to spend their life... doing dentistry.

~~~
blazespin
I doubt looking into mouths is a big deal. I don't see how that's any worse or
better than being a surgeon. The problem is so much of dentistry is cosmetics
which is a horribly shallow thing to be dedicating your life to.

~~~
peferron
What's so shallow about giving back self-confidence to kids and adults who
didn't win perfect teeth at the genetic lottery?

~~~
_nalply
It's a cultural perception. Japanese girls are happy with snaggle-teeth
because in Japanese culture these are cute. Some even want fake crooked teeth.

[https://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/why-
japan...](https://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/why-japanese-
women-go-for-fake-crooked-teeth)

So don't get too hung up about perfect teeth.

------
abakker
I'm not a software developer. I have passable understanding of what computer
science _is_ , and what goes into software (a few semesters of programming at
a bad level). The following list is some things I keep in my list of ideal
interview parameters/meta-questions. I'm not sure if they are really for me,
since I doubt I would ever be interviewing a developer for a job, but who
knows, maybe I'll need to find a technical person some time.

1\. I feel strongly that people should be allowed to prepare for interviews by
seeing the actual questions. In fact, I think the questions should be public.
What might these questions be? I want to immediately know if someone took the
time to do some diligence and also to make certain that my own biases didn't
cause me to avoid hard questions for candidates I liked.

2\. I don't want to ask something which can be easily googled. Simple answers
aren't any good; I need something where it is open ended enough and the
answers to the question can be "good enough" where I feel the completeness is
sufficient for the role.

3\. I need to be able to practically communicate what the real purpose of the
role is. the Job posting will not always be _allowed_ to do that, but through
the interview I need to make it clear what work I actually need done. Should I
do this via questions (keep this a secret from the interviewer) or tell them
the honest truth and risk losing potentially excellent employees. Both
employee and employer have high frictional costs in this case.

4\. Interviews are a mostly artificial format - similar things do happen in
sales and client-facing scenarios, but usually in a toned down way. In an
interview, the risk of performance is entirely on the person interviewing, in
a customer-facing scenario, the person is representing the company, but also
has the company support behind them. How could you put the interview into a
position where the interviewee felt as if the company interviewing them would
back them up to help them succeed? (could you do a pair interview where
someone already hired for the role helps them work on an interview problem,
while someone else interviews them?)

------
sharemywin
My last interview was through a recruiter and I got an email back saying they
liked me and we'd hear something the following week then I never heard back
from the recruiter. Emailed a week later no response. emailed again another
week no response.

I did eventually get a job.

I've decided to work on getting my loan officer license.

~~~
scorpioxy
If we started talking about recruiters, I am pretty sure HN would crash due to
the longest threads ever made! I don't know if this is just recruiters for
software dev jobs that act this way but they make the whole process a lot more
stressful than it needs to be.

Because of all the BS involved in building software, I am considering starting
my own food truck. I used to enjoy writing code and solving problems...

------
irvingprime
You're not alone. I'm older than you are. Theoretically I'm too old to be
employed as a programmer. Yes, I've lost out on a lot of jobs because they
asked trivia questions about some language or computer science concept I
hadn't thought of in years. I prefer to look at it as their loss. It seems to
me that the emphasis on memorization of abstruse detail tends to favor younger
people. Us older folks don't remember quite as quickly but we have more
experience in solving problems. Therefore, those interviews show a fundamental
misunderstanding of the needs of the job. In other words, you might be better
off avoiding those places anyway.

All that said, I have been almost continuously employed for a dozen years or
so. Periods of unemployment are short, and when I work the pay is high. While
I may fail to answer the random BS questions at several interviews in a row, I
get far more interviews than people I know in other lines of work, and wind up
employed again after far shorter periods of time. Sometimes it's freelance or
contract work but even those are paying excellent money for programmers these
days.

I guess it's a trade off. You have to endure a lot of frustration to get to
the satisfying and successful bits. Don't give up hope! (But do see if there's
a side project that can tide you over. Programming skills can support many
baskets to put your eggs in)

------
jimmywanger
No offense, this is a huge pity party you're throwing yourself.

You said you "blew" five interviews without providing any information or
taking any responsibility. Also, you say that you've been doing development
for 20 years. Do you think you're entitled to something purely based on your
experience, even though it might not be relevant?

Also, five interviews is just a drop in the bucket. What did you expect your
interview pass rate to be, over 20%? That seems highly unrealistic.

------
arenaninja
It may be stressful, but I would not sweat it. In my experience, the only way
to get better at interviews is to do more interviews. Then the random
questions start becoming more common.

I interviewed a guy once who was trying to talk his way into a VP-level
position. Except he was talking to me, and I was just a hired hand suited only
to make a recommendation for a n additional developer. The guy had a sound
mind but the company was not hiring for his role.

At the same time, I mostly don't want to work at the companies that do puzzle
interviews, though you may feel differently. A lot of times these center on
approaches like recursion algorithms, but I'm a full-stack/backend web
developer, and I've written less than 10 recursion functions for production. I
now ask these interviewers how often they write recursion algorithms and the
answer I usually get the line "oh it's just useful to know the underlying
concept," except it isn't. I can write them, but I don't care for them, and
the concept isn't particularly mind-blowing, and you'll have to explain it to
the rest of your team.

Anyway, hang in there, best wishes

~~~
nojvek
As a full stack dev, I write recursive stuff all the time. It's a very
effective technique.

I do agree though? A lot of interview questions are trick questions.

------
rurban
Last week I got the following answer: "We cannot process your CV for security
reasons." I sent them a plain text CV_name.txt. "Please send us your CV as
PDF."

This was for a security related job. I guess we are just not a good fit.

------
scorpioxy
Tough but not unusual. For the record, I'm 33 and I have had a similar
experience. I am not sure it has anything to do with your age but ageism is
very real and I am trying to prepare for it because 40, assuming I'll make it,
is just around the corner.

I did 3 interviews so far this month and even though I didn't get any
rejections, I still don't have any offers. Things around here do move
slow(Australia) but I am not holding my breath.

2 of those interviews asked me questions about algorithms even though the job
had nothing to do with that and I explained that I am not good at those
puzzles and that I preferred to discuss my experience.

I don't know your situation but you have to keep trying. Even 20-30
interviews, whatever it takes. Not getting an offer from an interview says
nothing about you or your abilities. Every single user on this site can tell
you horror stories when they were looking for a job so you're not alone.

~~~
tluyben2
You could also plan for another life (style) (because approaching 40 for which
we started planning early 30s) which is what my wife and myself did. We
prepared a few years to make sure (we invested money and time in that) we had
remote gigs all over the world set up and then moved to a much cheaper country
and to the cheapest part of that country. Not only did we find, after a while,
that life is actually nicer, we don't miss anything we had before and we
literally need a tiny fraction of the money we needed in the popular city.
Obviously you need to be a certain kind of person to do this, but many of my
friends now did / are doing it and feeling the same experience. Most of them
come from high paying IT jobs which means they have enough money in the bank
(especially after selling their house) to provide additions to their pension
or even live out their entire life without needing income in a much cheaper
place.

Edit; now planning for 50 by removing dependency on doing development gigs

~~~
scorpioxy
The theory is sound but it assumes that I am able to move to any country
legally to live there. That requires certain types of passports which I was
not born with. It also has more assumptions to what my financial/family
situation is. I don't meant this in a negative way of course since you don't
know me but what I am saying is that this plan is not always possible.

The idea of keeping expenses down and foregoing frivolous luxuries is what
allows me to wait for a better offer inbetween jobs if i needed to. So I
strongly agree with that bit.

~~~
tluyben2
> since you don't know me but what I am saying is that this plan is not always
> possible.

Ofcourse, did not mean to imply you should pack up and leave, but it is an
alternative scenario for some and they might not have considered it (well). It
took us years of planning and checking out locations when still in fulltime
employment, so it's not this 'f*ck it, we're off' kind of thing.

Edit: checked your profile/site and I do believe the 'unintended privileged'
(you cannot help where you are born or who your parents are) like me cannot
really understand how it is not to be able to just travel anywhere, so sorry
if I stepped over that too easily. I just try to help as I was in your
position 10 years ago work wise, but not in quite in the same region...

~~~
scorpioxy
Oh yes, it's pretty good advice in general. Thank you for that.

Luckily, I am in a better situation than most, having the chance to move to
Australia a year ago as part of their immigration system. I say luckily but
really it took a lot of effort and planning to apply and then wait for the
process and take care of all the details. Its a great country but I still face
some issues being a foreigner.

P.S. The mountains in Spain... Sounds great!

------
CryoLogic
I am not as old as you, but old enough to be done with the hiring BS for
software engineers. I also get pissed when I get asked a random-ass puzzle
someone found on the internet.

I've had interviews where the question / puzzle took the interviewer 30-40
minutes to explain and he needed an answer by 45 minutes.

The whole system is just fucking stupid.

------
eugenefedoto
I graduated quite a while ago with a CS degree, and am still searching for my
first entry level position.

I have been asked the most ridiculous questions in phone screens and on-sites.

"What is your SAT score?"

"Why did you choose your university over a better ranked one?"

"Tell us about how you used connection strings." (is a CS grad really supposed
to know this)

"Do you volunteer teaching kids how to code on your off-time?"

"How do you use this HTML API?" (stuff like micro workers)

"How do you find about the latest tech?" (they weren't satisfied with just HN
and Reddit)

Some companies gave me comprehensive projects to spend two weeks or more to
work on, in a dozen or so technologies I never encountered.

With one company, I spent a week working on their project. They told me that
since I had only 90% done, I didn't pass. Two weeks later, they call me back
and ask me to complete the last 10%. It sounded like they were asking for free
work. I finished it, then they lied about the expected salary. I wanted an X
average salary for the area. They cut it down to X/2 with no benefits, a 6
month probationary period, and no perks.

Another company wanted me to solve a challenging, practical problem. I spent a
month figuring it out. Then there were two more parts to this prescreen. The
next one wasn't too bad. For the last one, they wanted a written report. I
wasn't smart enough to solve their impractical problem for the report. Don't
forget this was only step one of the interview process.

Sometimes company reject you due to a bad day. I interviewed with Walmart. The
recruiter never set up an appointment, then decided to randomly call me in the
morning. The person who referred me to the position said there were no hard
requirements about knowing a technology. The recruiter on the phone questioned
why I had C# projects instead of Java keywords like Spring listed on my
resume. She kept yawning throughout the call. She thought I applied to the
wrong job, then abruptly ended the call.

Sometimes I would pass interviews, and told I made it to the next round.
Months passed, no reply, not even a rejection.

I'm still searching for a job. I'm honestly scared of all these job posts I
see that require experience in a dozen different frameworks. It's getting
harder every day.

~~~
ktRolster
_I 'm honestly scared of all these job posts I see that require experience in
a dozen different frameworks. It's getting harder every day._

Don't worry about it too much, just focus on improving your interview skill
and you'll get it. When I first graduated, it took me a year to figure out the
hiring/interview process, failing everywhere. Then once I figured it out, I
suddenly had plenty of offers. You'll do the same.

~~~
greenrover
It's the crazy companies that are hard to figure out. Don't seem excited
working there for 10+ years? Auto-rejection. The last on-site I was able to
pass, at a startup, but then they changed it into a contract at the end. Full
time promised, etc. Last week came. Oops, nevermind about that full time, and
we can't extend the contract.

------
gigatexal
Keep up the good fight. Hell most would probably have given up by now. Do you
have a portfolio or fun projects that you spend time on? Almost everywhere I
interview asks for my github account. Also the book "cracking the coding
interview" is awesome and only 30 bucks at Amazon.

------
brandon272
Be direct and tell them that you aren't interested in answering their random
internet puzzles. Offer to complete a programming assignment directly related
to what you would be working on in the job, on your own time. (Assuming you
are willing to do that.)

------
ENTP
Feel for you. I've been in very similar positions. Just today I had an
interview with a very well known company and the interviewer sounded like he
couldnt really care. Ive 20+ years pro experience and over that time, if you
are a good problem solver, you end up getting a whole bunch of experience in
different things. Problem i've found is everyone is looking for specialists
that fit into a narrow box. I really don't, and i'd guess most people with any
length of experience don't either. Perhaps startups are your best bet?

------
somid3
Wow, I hear you, that's hard. Can you share some more thoughts on the
interview itself, perhaps we can help you here if you provide more details as
to the questions and the response.

------
vbrendel
Work out which company you would actually want to work with (ask questions)
and just do do their friggin puzzles if that's what gets you in the door.

------
dimodi9
Hi Irishguy - I believe there was a fellow here that was promoting a job board
for very experienced (i.e.: non-teenager) software developers. I remember he
had 100s of comments after putting together a simple google doc. I am sure
there must be lots of jobs on that board already. In what cities are you
looking for a new position?

~~~
convolvatron
oomph. old geek jobs. now only 2 are specifically for old geeks, the rest are
just culled from other job sites.

i've seen some really nice pallet and tarp houses around lately

------
sajit
Very sorry to hear about your case. As a 35 yr old programmer I hear you. Its
hard. Praying for the best

------
justinzollars
My advice is to network, to never give up and to attend more meetups. Its a
numbers game. Eventually you will find the right match.

------
blazespin
There are some pretty good interview practice sites. Read glass door. It's a
hoop you have to jump through.

------
cdumler
If you're looking to vent, then I'll say, "That sucks, dude. Keep in there,
it's all a numbers game." Tomorrow will be a better day.

But, I'm going to be bold. I'm going to out on the limb and suggest that:
maybe it's not being asked "RANDOM shite," but maybe your attitude. Generally
speaking, I've had to do three to five or so interviews to get an offer.
Depending on the market and the timing, I've had far, far worse. I once spent
four months trying to find something, anything. So, here are a few thoughts
for you or anyone else.

People who have 10 years (or claim 10 years) C#/SQL are a dime-a-dozen. You're
competing in a market that is dying, the same way Java developers are dying: a
smaller and smaller group of employers who are stuck on the tech. Microsoft
lost, which is why they are trying so desperately to incorporate Linux/Open
Source technologies. You're going to be valuable to company if you're either
inexpensive or the best-of-the-best. Your skill set is dated. Get it back into
shape. Luckily, our profession is one of the cheapest to retool.
Unfortunately, you should have been doing this two years ago. Spend your free
time learning, always. Get yourself up to speed with NodeJS/Vue/React, etc. If
you don't have experience with Linux, get it.

Companies want one of two things: a reason to hire you or a reason to not hire
you. Be involved in that process. Is it a really a random problem? Or, are
they trying to gauge how you think and approach problems? How did you respond
to it? Were you inquisitive or were you as hostile as this post? When I've
been a hiring manager, I always ask questions like, "How many baseballs will
fit in a 747?" Good candidates say, "Well, I'll just estimate that a 747 is
100 feet long and 30 feet wide and so.." Great ones will point out that if
packed it full, it may be overweight to fly. Bad ones say, "I don't know." The
interview is there for you to present what you know and what you're interested
in. Your resume should be tailored to present things can talk about. It's all
about selling you. If you have a recruiter, talk with him or her. If you're
not using a recruiter, get one. Have them get feedback on the interview. Then,
take it to heart. Period.

On the flip side, there are companies want conformity. You're either "it" or
not. If I don't get an offer, I don't _want_ the job. There is zero point in
being in a place that questions your ability to fit in. I've gotten turned
down from some pretty cool places, but that's life. I wouldn't have had the
career or the friends in my profession that I do had some of those jobs worked
out. I even found out later that whole groups of people got laid-off, quit,
etc.

The important thing is: getting a job is not a right and it doesn't come from
meritocracy. It's people looking for people who solve the problems the company
has and doesn't bring more problems to the company. Think about it from their
perspective and try to figure out how you, your experience, and your attitude
is benefit for them. If you've been in this profession for several decades,
you have it in you.

By the way, my first computer was at nine and it had 4k of RAM. I always sell
that: "So, I got into computers when I was nine. After punching in two plus
two and see it spit back four, I instantly wanted to know how it could
possibly know that. I've never stopped learning since." Right then and there I
set the tone for the company: You may have problems I don't understand, but I
_will_ figure out the answer.

~~~
flukus
> People who have 10 years (or claim 10 years) C#/SQL are a dime-a-dozen.
> You're competing in a market that is dying, the same way Java developers are
> dying: a smaller and smaller group of employers who are stuck on the tech.

I think your in a bubble. 90%+ of the jobs around here are c#, java and php.
Only one local company seems to be doing anything with node (and not something
node is suited for), in fact, I haven't seem them advertise for a while, so
it's probably zero now.

~~~
cdumler
I do not deny certainly that 90% of the job offers are C#, Java and PHP.
Recruiters are always trying to get me to look at various offers, and I agree;
however, they're pretty much all large, established companies that are
desperate to hire people because the word on the street is that their projects
have spun out of control, are behind schedule, etc. At least, that's the
running M.O. in this city.

I also agree that NodeJS is jumping the shark. But, again, if your at where
he/she is, there is where the more up-to-date Microsoft companies are hiring.
NodeJS is the new hotness (five years late) in this town.

Personally, I'm already working on exiting Node. Having used it hard core for
high-performance APIs, I've found all the sharp edges and failure modes. Node
really falls down when you have to get fine-grain control of flow control,
such as processing files and large data. Ironically, I'm seeing a resurgence
of Ruby.

I've been working on tooling myself back in to Ruby (did Ruby for five years),
Elixir, and Docker/Flynn/etc.

------
guest-speaker-4
Their interview process signals their strengths and bullshit. You also signal
to them things which have to filtered correctly.

Also, interviewing is partly arbitrary hazing to make incumbents feel
valuable.

Five is not very many interviews at all. 30 would be significant. In good
interviewing, much more time is wasted to have many more offers.

If you're going for instant respect, wage slavery is the wrong port to chat
up. It's always earned over time by demonstrating invaluable performance as
useful to the current business "growing pains."

Finally, the usual standards: positive, hygiene (no nasty ear, nose, neck
hair), fit, energetic, quick, confident and dressed impeccably. And, all the
usual canned answer "brain teasers" which are Glugglable. Perhaps tactfully-
suggesting how such arbitrary mental fappenings apply to the job without
pointing out how they are often ineffective shortcuts which may make the
interviewer feel superior. Oh joys of big ol' corporations and their bloat and
waste.

------
cylim
show me your Github profile or your learning blog, you need to build a
personal brand as a developer... :)

~~~
sova
I abhor the notion of developing a private "brand" so strongly and resist-
fully that it's hard to keep my cool commenting about it. That said, it would
be cool to have a service that would take all the code you have and some of
the stuff you've made, and make a decent portfolio for you. Like <pour years
worth of work into wood chipper> -> out comes a shiny portfolio site

~~~
edoceo
Build it! Just a simple matter of programming.

------
BraveNewCurency
> I have been to 5 interviews this month and nobody gave me a fucking job.

1) People don't "give" you jobs, you earn them.

2) Swearing is unprofessional

> SQl

Hmm, ten years of SQL and you can't spell it correctly? Something is fishy
there.

> Every single one of these interviews was somebody asking me some random shit

I admit a lot of interviews focus on the wrong stuff. But there is actually a
LOT of leeway in interviews, where you can show your understanding of software
engineering even in the presence of dumb questions. If those companies were
actually dumb about hiring, then you probably didn't want to work for them
anyway. Find some quality companies to interview for.

