"We have hard/challenging problems" replacing "Looking for Ruby Ninja"?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3219187

by sebilasse • 15 years ago

3 4 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

It seems that this years "we have hard/challenging (technical) problems" is replacing last years "looking for programmer Rockstars/Ninjiutsu-Ninjas".

Am I the only one that gets slightly annoyed by these generic drink-the-kool-aid slogans?

noonespecial• 15 years ago

Not at all. I just make sure to fill in the blanks when reading. It goes like this:

We have hard/challenging (technical) problems that are mostly of our own creation and despite hiring you specifically to solve these problems, you will by no means be allowed by your managers solve.

No only is it good for a chuckle, but its a nice reminder that on the balance, anyone who hires with catch phrases is probably not somewhere you want to work. Hire with catch phrases, get resumes full of buzz with absolutely no fizz included to go with that buzz.

glimcat• 15 years ago

I know it's usually that, but it's at least nice to see them trying to figure out what motivates people.

I'm still much more likely to bite if they actually say straight out what a few of those problems are instead of spewing a list of every library used in their stack and asking for 5+ years experience with them when better than half haven't been around for more than two. If it's legitimately interesting work, I'll happily learn any and all tools necessary to do it.

bluedanieru• 15 years ago

The magic word in your post is interesting. Everyone has hard problems to solve, and most of the time those hard problems are borne of stupid decisions made 5 years ago by people who don't work there anymore. Then perpetuated by people currently working there who will, as pointed out, completely defeat at least half your efforts to make any actual useful progress. I work on hard and challenging problems, which are by no means interesting, and I've often contemplating throwing myself out of a window just to experience some new shit :-)

If you have interesting work, let's talk, but you probably don't.

wavephorm• 15 years ago

They can't exactly be honest say "we used Rails and didn't build this right so we need someone who knows what they're doing to fix it for us, oh and we're VC funded and offer generous 0.25% equity vested over 4 years"

"We have hard/challenging problems" replacing "Looking for Ruby Ninja"?

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