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Gergely Orosz Profile picture
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26 Nov, 8 tweets, 5 min read
Time to rethink the live coding interview for any company wanting to hire women, from underrepresented groups and those with performance anxiety.

Don't take it from me. Take it from @cherthedev, @gurlcode, @erinfoox, and dozens of other engineers who shared the same in private.
Take it from @cherthedev. Read the whole thread and the responses:

Take it from @gurlcode and @erinfoox. Listen to the episode on how interviewing is like and the unnatural expectations live coding created: anchor.fm/single-threade…

A woman engineers shared: "They expressed it so much better than I could have ever. And I feel the same."
Take it from the first hand experiences of so many developers of all backgrounds who all freeze on these interviews:









Finally, take it from me: a hiring manager who had been doing live coding interviews for years

It now all clicks. The people who had years of experience, yet inexplicably froze and whom I rejected.

Looked a few of them up on what they do now. Wow. They can code... what a miss.
Take it from researchers - from NC State University who ran and published a study with 48 participants. They're the first such study I am aware of and the results are damning, but also in-line with all the stories and anecdotal evidence.

The study: news.ncsu.edu/2020/07/tech-j…
Take it from people working at FAANG who did hundreds of interviews, then bombed it when it came to them interviewing.

Or the person who got bad news on the day of the Facebook interview so bombed it but got the Google offer from another day.

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=238480…
I was waiting for this: "practice more until you get better at it."

Be my guest: keep interviewing at your team/company with this mentality.

What I'm saying: don't be surprised you reject/miss out on perfectly qualified applicants, disproportionately in underrepresented groups.

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More from @GergelyOrosz

Gergely Orosz Profile picture
26 Nov
"Why are you making your PDF samples of all your books a one-click download? You could collect email addresses and then upsell."

It's because I personally hate this practice. Same with email popups on blogs. They annoy me. Even if it would 'convert' more, I won't do it.
Here's examples where people keep suggesting I collect emails, then increase revenue.

thetechresume.com/table-of-conte…

mobileatscale.com/content/

I passionately hate this practice. So less revenue it is. But I won't do upselling practices I would not want myself.
After a long conversation with someone trying to convince me I'd make more money this way (true, at least on the short term) plus trying to get me to use their product that specializes in collecting emails, here's where I ended with.
Read 4 tweets
Gergely Orosz Profile picture
25 Nov
If you asked my two years ago: I would have told you live coding interviews are fine (*I* don’t mind them).

I since got to know women developers who get stressed, freeze up and get rejected on live coding interviews & whiteboards.

The crazy thing is they’re all solid engineers.
Where do most of these engineers end up working?

At places which don’t do live coding or whiteboards. Ones that do eg takehomes or code reviews.

If you do live coding / whiteboards, you are probably biased against underrepresented groups.
“But there’s no data that shows that live coding interviews bias against women.” Most woman devs I know share stories doing very, very poorly on this format vs reality.

And a study from NC State University with a limited sample size hints at this as well: news.ncsu.edu/2020/07/tech-j…
Read 6 tweets
Gergely Orosz Profile picture
16 Nov
Growing a junior-heavy engineering team. How do you "level up" people, keep executing, and keep hiring?

The bad news: you probably don't. Something's got to give.

The good news: there are plenty of approaches that work. Collected several of them:

newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/growing-a-ju…
Special thanks to reviewers/contributors @ebiatawodi, @jakozaur, @hkarthik, @MisiekWegrzyn & @cbzehner (quoted).

They're all engineering managers generous with their knowledge worth following (I do!) - save for @ebiatawodi who is a product director you should follow :)
If there's one piece of advice I can give to managers with junior-heavy teams: be realistic. Convey this realistic thinking upwards.

Yes, less experienced engineers do learn, and learn quickly. But don't expect miracles like shipping faster, or shipping reliably.

Stay grounded.
Read 4 tweets
Gergely Orosz Profile picture
11 Nov
More well-known, high-paying companies like Stripe, Twitter, Shopify, etc offer remote positions. Many engineers I know apply, and expect to get interviews at these places. Then get sorely disappointed.

Here's what happens and why it's very competitive even to get an interview:
1. The competition for these places is incredible. They get huge amounts of inbound. Surprise - it's not just you who wants to work remotely at Stripe! Typically thousands of inbounds for some positions.
2. Your current residence. Contrary to popular belief, these companies do not hire in all countries: only in ones they have entities. This typically means US, UK, and a few EU countries. If you're not based in ones they have entities, you're probably out of luck unless...
Read 8 tweets
Gergely Orosz Profile picture
11 Nov
From an engineer: "I want to do side projects but I'm holding off because of my employer contracts that claim all IP I do at or outside work goes to my employer. What is your take on this?"

There are two major problems with your thinking:
1. If you never start, you will never learn or get to scratch your itch. If you have the bug to do it: do it!

2. On the IP. If you want to build a sideproject for fun: do it! I never worried about Microsoft claiming my Flashlight app or Cocktail site for themselves.

BUT:
3. IF you really are starting a business, you *should* be careful. If it is relevant with what your company is doing, it could fall into the IP. But this is not the "fun sideproject" category.

Either do it in stealth (most people do it), or do it in the open.
Read 6 tweets
Gergely Orosz Profile picture
10 Nov
A perspective I learned about big tech internships when I was a hiring manager:

Internships are, fundamentally, a very expensive recruitment exercise that big tech does, to place "holds" on the most promising graduates, before those people graduate and start to look for jobs.
As a hiring manager, your goal is to *get interns to return* 1-2 years later.

You pay them top dollar. Do lots of stuff to make them feel great - events+perks new joiners don't have. By the time they'd be really productive, they leave.

There's no more expensive way to hire.
So why do companies do it?

1. B/c they believe they will hire the best of the best out of college.

2. Because they want to hire #1 before their competition does.

3. Because they can. They have the money/resources.

4. (Ok, it's great for morale both for the teams and interns)
Read 6 tweets

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