On asking job candidates to code

Re:On asking job candidates to code by ones_and_zeros on Tuesday March 15, 2016 @10:53AM (#11290043)

Ageism is a thing in our industry. This may not be it but in other professions it is uncommon for those in the middle of their career to be applying for positions cold, there is usually an intro involved or in the case of the medical fields credentialing does this. As engineers we have poor soft skills that lead to weak professional networks (we think of our selves as mercenaries) and we don't have credentials of any sort.

So it looks a bit weird to them and the thought process is something like "this guy is talented, what is wrong with him that he's a walk on? I'm not willing to find out, pass."

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Re:On asking job candidates to code by mratzloff on Tuesday March 15, 2016 @01:32PM (#11291387)

As engineers we have poor soft skills that lead to weak professional networks

Yeah, I dunno. I mean, some have poor soft skills, definitely. But I would argue that engineers in many companies are simply insulated more than other groups. The biggest reason for this is that Engineering is thought of as a cost center, which has a number of resulting consequences.

Other groups like Product are exposed to many other groups (Sales, BD, Exec, Engineering) and so naturally their networks are larger and more diverse.

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