

Ask HN: How do you convince someone that you are the creator of an app? - boggles

I have an interview where I need to talk about an app I created. The app is closed source and doesn't identify me anywhere on screen. How do you persuade someone that you're the creator in that case?
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nostrademons
If they're skeptical (and you haven't given them reason to be skeptical), you
probably don't want to work for them anyway. There needs to be an atmosphere
of trust-by-default; if you don't have that at the _interview_ stage, what's
the _job_ going to be like?

~~~
cd34
There is no trust by default. You've handed me a piece of paper (your resume),
that you've authored, that puts you in the best possible light, with facts
that I cannot verify independently without your permission. Where have you
earned trust?

99% of the people I interview have lied on their resume. When I accept an
interview, it is because your resume has stood out. That doesn't mean I have
put my guard down and instantly trust you. Everything you do at the point
where the interview is accepted is looked at. Appearance, handshake, attitude,
demeanor, etc.

We advertised a position in May and received 41 resumes. Of those, four were
reasonable candidates. I personally called all 41. The 37 were told that their
resume didn't meet our requirements, thank you for applying. Resumes are
rarely kept on file for later hiring. When you hear that, it is a friendly way
of getting you off the phone. Employers lie too.

Of the four, only one seemed like a reasonable match. During the interview,
despite his claims of his coding experience, he wasn't a problem solver. Could
he have really worked 4 years for a competitor without being able to solve a
problem I had posed? As it turns out, he had just received a promotion but was
using that title to represent himself.

A true illustration of the Peter Principle.

Was I wrong to be skeptical? He didn't get the job.

My competitor knew he was laying off people. He gave them promotions to make
them more marketable when they applied for other jobs. He didn't do them a
favor.

An interview is a date. I have to decide in that two hour period whether
you're the right candidate. A decision costs me roughly 90 days of your salary
plus a reduction in someone's efficiency while you are brought up to speed.
This carries a cost as well.

You earn trust. You do this by answering honestly during the interview without
giving me those canned answers that are the double edged sword. You don't
embellish things on the resume by extending dates a little bit to cover up for
a period of unemployment. The ONLY piece of data I can get from a previous
employer are your dates of employment. I can't get salary history or even
whether the company would rehire you. Anything else that company gives me is
illegal. Unless you've given me permission, I cannot talk to your coworkers or
previous managers. Handing me your Aunt's name as a reference is worthless
unless she writes code or has seen you in a work environment.

So, as an employer, what have you set forth other than handed me a piece of
paper and a cover letter expressing interest in a position that should make me
trust you?

If I pursued you, that's a different matter, but then the original author
wouldn't have posed his question.

------
cd34
Years ago I interviewed an employee that wrote "Expert MySQL and PHP Coder" on
his resume. He submitted code that was very well written, commented, no unit
tests, but, the code was relatively clean. He showed me his web site where it
was running and had substantial evidence in his favor that he was the author.

During his first programming assignment, his code quality was horrendous --
certainly not anything like the code submitted. He had passed two Brainbench
tests that we had asked for and had other Brainbench test results that
suggested his coding issues may have been a result of being immersed into a
large codebase. Perhaps he wasn't used to our environment, coding style or
method of doing things. Programming was a small portion of his job and he made
it through his 90 day probation.

After the second project, his code quality hadn't improved. I approached him
and was told: "I didn't write that code, I maintain that code." His rational
for expert: "Compared to my friends, I am an expert."

He beat me. He had a friend help him on the Brainbench tests, he presented
code that wasn't his and he lied on his resume.

If you claim you wrote code and there is no way to independently verify it,
I'm going to err on the side of caution. Other programmers that we've
interviewed now take a pseudocode test. I don't care if you don't know Python
because language is just syntax. If you know programming logic, you can become
proficient in a different language relatively quickly. This is much easier in
a pairs environment.

You will have a hard time convincing someone you wrote any code where your
name isn't present on it. If they are hiring you because you wrote the app,
then they have some idea. If they are hiring you and you are presenting that
application as a code sample, you need to bring a piece of the code that
solves some problem in a unique way and be prepared to discuss why that code
segment is coded in that manner. Were there other ways you could have solved
that problem? Why did you choose that method? If the code belongs to your
previous/current employer, don't even think about bringing it.

Stand out against the crowd by being prepared. Bring a few copies of that code
snippet printed on clean, bright white paper - in black and white. Don't bring
me a sample using your editors language color scheme. Have a copy of some
function or class that calls that piece of code handy as well. Bonus credit
for bringing a copy of the unit tests for that function/class. Keep it light.
I'm going to look at no more than two or three pages and one of the other
programmers will probably glance over it as well. There is no time to study
code during an interview, so, it needs to be a small sample.

As an employer, especially right now, I can pick and choose. Why are you the
best person for the job? Why is your code superior to someone else's? How well
can you debug code and solve problems?

That is what we look for. I don't care if you don't know a particular language
-- I want to make sure you have the ability to solve problems without needing
someone coaching you.

As a sidenote: When asked when you are willing to start, if you are currently
employed, your answer is two weeks. If you tell me you can start work Monday,
I'm going to believe that you have no respect for your job and aren't willing
to give that company the respect they deserve by closing out your existing
position. If you don't respect them, why would you respect me? If the company
offers to throw a bonus to get you to start in a week, your answer is: It
wouldn't be fair to my current employer as I need to close out tasks, finish
some documentation/train the new person, etc.

Everything you say and do during an interview is going to be analyzed. During
the last two interviews, I've taken both to a pizza place during lunch to
'take them out of the stressful office.' This is still a test. Everything, and
I mean everything you do during that interview is going to be analyzed. Don't
lie. When the question is asked about your flaws, don't give that same old
answer that you're a perfectionist and sometimes you spend too much time
working on a piece of code. We've heard that too many times. When asked why
you are leaving your current position, be honest, but, don't disrespect your
current position. I might know someone there.

All I want to know is, can you do the job well? Are you a better candidate
than the others? Are you going to fit in with the existing team? Can you work
unsupervised? Are you a leader or follower? Are you going to make my job
easier? Are you going to be honest? When something breaks, are you going to
try to lie about the problem or own up to it? I've written code for 25 years,
I know there are bugs and they can crop up. If you made a mistake, am I going
to get an honest answer when you're under intense pressure to get a solution
or are you going to shift the blame? Extra credit here if you can solve the
problem. Don't ever break something and fix it and not tell me.

I am willing to overlook some things. Lie to me, disrespect your current
position, complain that your existing boss wouldn't give you a raise because
of this or that and your resume hits the shredder the instant my office door
closes.

------
melvinram
During the interview, simply talk about the real challenges you had with
making it, the decisions you made as you went along and why you built it in
the first place. These could probably be faked but I'm sure most people would
be able to pick out a fake and they'll probably be able to tell that you're
credible.

------
fookyong
is this something you own or something you built for a client?

I'm just wondering why you can't upload a secret "bio" page on the app
somewhere that only you know the url to...

------
raquo
Tell them the app's most obscure bugs

