
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.<p>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.<p>Our culture is very comparable to that of Google.
Looking forward to hearing from you.<p>http://www.itasoftware.com<p>-Mike
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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#...](http://itasoftware.com/careers/puzzle_archive.html?catid=39#Add-
A-Gram)

~~~
jmagar
<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
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).

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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
Correct url to the paper: [http://www.demarcken.org/carl/papers/ITA-software-
travel-com...](http://www.demarcken.org/carl/papers/ITA-software-travel-
complexity/ITA-software-travel-complexity.pdf)

~~~
prakash
my bad. thanks Alx.

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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"?

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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
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.

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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.

