I’d Pay You $500k a Year, but You Can’t Do the Work

Re:I’d Pay You $500k a Year, but You Can’t Do the Work by Alex3917 on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @11:22AM (#14247101)

> someone who is "good enough" is someone who can build a system from the ground up, with the capability to handle requests at high capacity and manage performance

Being a good developer (usually) doesn't mean writing especially performant code, at least not beyond what's noticeable in terms of the end user's experience. It means creating products with:

- intuitive database schemas

- clean code architecture

- good overall readability

- simplicity and optionality

Being a developer isn't much different than being any other type of writer. The best way to figure out if someone is likely to be a good developer is to ask yourself whether they'd likely be successful as a contributor to the New Yorker.

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Re:I’d Pay You $500k a Year, but You Can’t Do the Work by CoolGuySteve on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @11:43AM (#14247303)

I agree with all of this, these are the most important skills for a developer, but none of these things are tested for in the typical programming interview.

If you want to min/max your stats, all that matters is mastering the 'Cracking the Coding Interview' style. So many companies cargo culting Google interview style such that it's now pretty dominant, at least in NYC.

On one hand you'd think this would be self correcting, more nimble companies would find more effective ways of interviewing. On the other hand, software development is one of the most fad driven industries out there.

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