Ask HN: Does Microsoft hire mediocre developers?

Posted by acidus on Thursday July 27, 2017 @01:52PM
from the ask-hn dept.

I've heard that Microsoft is hiring Go developers. I personally find working for Microsoft very interesting (Azure in particular) and I can write Go but I'm far from being an expert. I'm still learning, every day (I guess this applies to everyone else). I'm highly motivated and I am a fast learner but I don't think I can be compared to engineers like Aaron Schlesinger, Brian Ketelsen, Ashley McNamara, etc...

All the new hires are amazing, I really respect them. But I'm not as good as them. Should I still try to apply or maybe I shouldn't bother? I want a change in my career. I'm looking for an environment where there is a lot of talented people that I can learn from, and I want to work for a company that invests their time in making me a better developer. I work for a small company that struggles to find talent because they don't have enough money to attract it.

Thank you!

( 8 comments | 3 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Does Microsoft hire mediocre developers? by skylark on Thursday July 27, 2017 @02:22PM (#14868007)

If you can't get in despite your best attempts, then maybe it wasn't meant to be. But let them be the ones to say no. Never disqualify yourself before you've even tried.

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Re:Ask HN: Does Microsoft hire mediocre developers? by bsvalley on Thursday July 27, 2017 @05:14PM (#14869616)

when you're facing a whiteboard with an interviewer looking over your shoulder, looking at the clock waiting for you to write a basic function that cracks a complex problem, you can have 20 years of experience in Go, it ain't gonna change much! Just apply and see...

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Re:Ask HN: Does Microsoft hire mediocre developers? by ccdev on Thursday July 27, 2017 @03:57PM (#14868866)

I'm not a Go developer but I had piqued Microsoft's interested before, back when I didn't have any professional C# experience (have a few C# projects, though).

Most of my experience is with small web shops and startups so you could definitely get their attention. They just left me with a bad impression when one of their recruiters ghosted me hard. According to LinkedIn the recruiter still works there but it's been difficult trying to get a hold of someone else.

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Re:Ask HN: Does Microsoft hire mediocre developers? by leksak on Friday July 28, 2017 @10:52AM (#14874651)

On average, every average developer is average. Apply!

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Re:Ask HN: Does Microsoft hire mediocre developers? by zerr on Thursday July 27, 2017 @02:17PM (#14867959)

Why would they use Go instead of C#?

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Re:Ask HN: Does Microsoft hire mediocre developers? by acidus on Thursday July 27, 2017 @02:22PM (#14868008)

Kubernetes was written in Go. Microsoft seems to be actually pretty open about language choices. Some examples: their first version of the Azure CLI used Node, they started using Python in their 2.0 version. The new ACI k8s connector uses TypeScript (VSCode too)!

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Re:Ask HN: Does Microsoft hire mediocre developers? by marcc on Thursday July 27, 2017 @04:35PM (#14869204)

Microsoft isn't just using TypeScript, they created and maintain TypeScript.

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Re:Ask HN: Does Microsoft hire mediocre developers? by zerr on Thursday July 27, 2017 @02:31PM (#14868072)

I wish at some point they use D.

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