My Biggest Regret as a Programmer

Re:My Biggest Regret as a Programmer by magicalist on Wednesday April 06, 2016 @05:34PM (#11442325)

Some people say it is, until you ask them if tech interviewing is sane. We can't even find a tech interview process that correlates well with performance and that's just who we let in the door before they even get to rise up as their value merits.

Then you add questions of if who is chosen for promotion is sane, if what products a company chooses to focus on is sane, if what products the market chooses to make popular is sane. None of those are optimal in the sense that the "best" thing wins out. Marketing (of a product or self-promotion) and being in the right place at the right time dominate each of those steps.

So how on earth would you take that and get a meritocracy out the other end?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:My Biggest Regret as a Programmer by tomp on Friday April 08, 2016 @08:03AM (#11454003)

The fact that the people who perform best in interviews aren't also the people who perform best on the job doesn't invalidate meritocracy; it simply means that interview environment/tasks are a poor approximation of job environment/tasks. Non-meritocracy would mean that you don't choose the people who interview the best, but instead choose people you (1) like most, or (2) have a particular skin color, or (3) have perticular interests, etc.

The second part of your comment is less relevant, as I think most "tech" people would say that e.g. promotions (management), product development (marketing) and the general market dynamics are highly "non-tech". But in many of these areas, people do try to choose the best - at least as far as marketing is concerned, companies dislike wasting money and choose to promote those people/products that they expect will produce the most profit. Companies' "profit", of course, doesn't correspond to a person's "merit" ("profitcracy"?), but the basic mechanism is the same.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:My Biggest Regret as a Programmer by smm2000 on Thursday April 07, 2016 @12:56AM (#11444827)

1. I think tech interviews are sane and screen for very specific skills - ability to master topic (everyone asks the same algo questions - there is no excuse not to master them even if you do not use knowledge day to day. It's no different from learning any other domain), ability to perform under pressure and ability to feign enthusiasm (it really suck to work with smb who visibly hates his job). Lack of those skills make person less productive in corporate environment. There is some randomness but overall process works very well.

2. Being good at self-promotion is a merit. Some have it and some not. You could not define merit as just technical skills.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:My Biggest Regret as a Programmer by magicalist on Thursday April 07, 2016 @04:49AM (#11445768)

> There is some randomness but overall process works very well.

Not many here would agree with you, on both sides of the table. Whiteboarding skills often do not translate into ability at a job.

> Being good at self-promotion is a merit. Some have it and some not. You could not define merit as just technical skills

Sure, but you're starting to beg the question. All systems are meritocracies if merit is defined at being successful within that system.

[ Parent | on HN ]