el_fuser

Sure they are... Your kid spends 6-10 hours per day under their direction. Often they spend more time with kids than the kids' parents.

I must be getting old

Of course, git was developed by an old guy that used CVS, so....

Diversity isn't about making personal changes to fit in with a group that is different than yourself.

> I appreciate that you guys might not be statisticians

and apparently very few on HN in general, seeing how this piece was upvoted.

Google has been studying their process in the last few years and are reaching different conclusions than these guys.

Leave it to the reader to ascertain which group has more validity.

> You're given weeks to refresh your knowledge ahead of a Google interview

Begs the question, doesn't it?

> Binary trees are MOST ASSUREDLY on that list

Sure they are... and my intro to CS textbook was ~500 pages. I'll bet I could find something to trip up just about anybody, especially when coupled with the pressure of doing it in front of the class ^H^H^H people that have $$$$/power over you.

Another instance where silicon valley favors the young... he probably would've nailed this question if he'd been only a couple of years removed from school.

He also would've nailed it had he been given 10 minutes to do some research to refresh.

Silicon valley (and the numerous companies that mock the interview style) are testing for the wrong thing when they hire, then complaining about not being able to find good engineers.

Because they were documented at all, at least in my experience.

I was on BOS around the same time patio showed up... It's amazing to see how "far" he has come. What he has mastered is marketing to developers, more than anything else. Of course it doesn't add up, because it's like all marketing: all sizzle, no steak.

"serious flaw" == hyperbole

Again, not the Steve Jobs I've read about.

Having your factory retool weeks before you launch an unproven product because you don't like the glass? Not very pragmatic.

Being principled does not necessarily mean they are principles you agree with!

not worth the legal hassle

That's not the Steve Jobs I read about. Like him or not, he was a man of principle.

I think you're overestimating how hot of a skill that actually is... But even if you could make "boatloads" of cash consulting, not everyone desires the road warrior lifestyle that goes along with consulting.

Ahhh. That makes a helluva lot more sense.

Not to mention having negligible relevance to your ability to lead an engineering staff.

Before you edit much further:

We want someone who has less than 12 years of MANAGEMENT EXPERIENCE. The reason is that if you haven't been coding for 12+ years...you probably are not "hands-on" enough

This arbitrary cutoff makes absolutely no sense. I'd like to see your quantification of skill drop off per year of management.

If what you are wanting is a hands-on technical manager, then you need to say so.

And it shouldn't matter if the person has been hands on for 5 years or 20.

But I feel I'm being a little too generous regarding your motives here.

No... It falls under disparate impact.

As i posted above... Lightweight processes were discussed as alternatives to waterfall way back in the 90s during my software engineering courses. "Rapid application development" and RAtional unified process were the "hot" lightweight methodologies when I started work in 1996. Scrum has been with us since 1995.

And yes, it's blatantly ageist... It falls under the disparate impact provision:

"In addition to prohibiting intentional discrimination against older workers (known as “disparate treatment”), the ADEA prohibits practices that, although facially neutral with regard to age, have the effect of harming older workers more than younger workers (known as “disparate impact”), unless the employer can show that the practice is based on an RFOA."

Nah... Lightweight processes were discussed as alternatives to waterfall way back in the 90s during my software engineering courses. "Rapid application development" and RAtional unified process were the "hot" lightweight methodologies when I started work in 1996. Scrum has been with us since 1995.

Not only is it blatantly ageist... It's stupid.

They want someone that has been building engineering organizations for 5-12 years, after having been an individual contributor.

Then, they want you to drop back into an individual contributor role. At least initially. Wink wink nudge nudge.

My "career" aspiration in school was to be a bearded, suspenders wearing unix admin/hacker.

I don't ever want to get non-technical. I've been a project manager, and found the work excruciatingly boring.

I've been a freelancer, and found the work mind numbingly boring.

I much prefer working for a company where I can be neck deep in designing and building challenging products.

I totally agree.

If I'm hiring someone for my team, I need to see skill. Or smarts.

If we're hiring an outside consultant, it's always for technical knowledge that we don't have. Again we need to see skill.

If we need to hire another team lead, it's usually because we have no one to promote from within (either due to experience or lack of volunteers), and again we need to see skill.

I don't hire for marketing, but I'd hope that they also want to see results and could care less if you've programmed before. Indeed it's likely irrelevant.

So true. My Facebook feed will contain no less than a dozen 2nd amendment related posts at any given point in time, but nary a peep about the 4th.

If you want to see action on this front, someone needs to educate the NRA that metadata provides the government much more information than any gun registration database ever could.

Oh yeah, definitely. I went deep into interviews with a big oil company, and when it came time to sit down with the Sr. managers, they did not like my philosophy on overtime at all (I have a family I like to see on the weekdays... Overtime is sometimes necessary, but if it's SOP then there's a problem).

I sympathize, brother.

My most irksome comments were "So... Giving mom the day off?" whenever someone would see me with my kids.

The most egregious thing to happen, was being kicked off of the local meetup for playdates... I assume I was approved to join the group because my first name is gender neutral.

Sometime between posting my profile pic (which included my kids) and attending my first meetup, I was removed from the group.

I tend to avoid places that equate career advancement with becoming a manager.

I'm Sooooo glad I don't work in a "professional" environment. I sometimes think professional is slang for pretentious.

"This is why, if you are a critic of the N.S.A.’s surveillance program, it is imperative that the war on terror reach its culmination."

The problem is there's no end, nor can there be an end. It's too nebulous. We have always had terrorism, and always will. Just like the war on drugs or poverty.

And just because Lincoln did it.... That doesn't make it right.

Everything wrong with our industry, in a neat little capsule.

We have the obvious age discrimination... The confusion over faddish languages being innovation... A hasty generalization fallacy...

A good testament that economists shouldn't actually try to apply their theories I'm the real world.