csmdev

It's the evil you know vs taking a chance on the unknown. Plus the short-term thinking that plagues most people.

This is why most companies fail eventually. Hiring and promoting based on relationships instead of skills. You can grow a relationship. But a bad employee will never get any better. Especially if you bump him up to management.

Did you stop and think why he is the team leader and not you? Maybe having a deeper understanding of something is more important than playing with multiple things at once.

Always switching technologies will get you only basic knowledge in each of them. Going past the surface requires daily use and years of constant evolution. That's how you become an expert in something. Deeper understanding. Not broader.

Learn what? A new thing every year? How do they become experts then?

Just because you learn a new language or technology doesn't mean you become better at problem solving. It just means that you can solve problems using a different tool.

So people that specialize in a field and become experts have no respect for the job. But the ones that hop around each year based on what's "hot" are better.

You do realize that you're basically dismissing experts because they specialize instead of learning the basics for another technology each year. Or has one year become enough to be an expert on something?

So basically be a freelancer. Market yourself heavily and learn whatever language or technology your employer uses. At this point, why get a job? You can easily earn more as a freelancer or contractor.

Employers want cheap workers and experience is seen as expensive. This is why most companies have one or two real developers and dozens of juniors learning on the job.

If you're experienced, you're better off building a startup.

You're fresh meat and cheaper. There are no downsides for hiring college grads. You take a low pay and learn the exact technology stack the company is using. But when you decide to change jobs, that's when the real fun starts.

Welcome to the bucket. I see you're new here. :)

Some tips for next time:

- if they want timed coding challenges or quizzes, skip them

- if they want you to work for a couple of days on a task to see your abilities, skip them

- if they don't accept a Skype interview and insist on going to their headquarters in another city, skip them

- if you're creative and like innovation, you're pretty much fucked because you don't fit the standard way of thinking

There is no shortage and there is no actual demand. Companies just want better people for less money. They say that are no more good developers. But what they mean is: "There are no skilled suckers that will accept our ridiculously low pay".

You need to jump through hoops only so they can get an easier recruiting process. You're no longer a valuable resource. You're just a mindless robot that needs to meet specific keywords. Doesn't matter if you learn, adapt or solve problems. All that matters is how you fit on a very specific recipe. Interviews are the same. Vomit the fizzbuzz solution, some "core programming" buzzwords and maybe two or three generic tasks with stupid loaded questions. And you're hired.

Software developers are now just employed freelancers. Doesn't matter how you think or what you can do. All you need is keywords and experience with highly specific things.

The interviewer is not actually interested in challenges you faced. He is interested in how to handled them. So simply prepare a good story about how you overcame adversity and solved a huge problem with an extremely intelligent solution. Interviewers love that kind of stuff.

This is already a known fact. Read about the education system in Finland to see the solution in action.

You're confusing white noise with independent audio cues.

Plus, I don't think anybody ignores keyboard typing sounds. They work just like car engine noises. Audio feedback for a physical action. The example you're searching for is keypad tones for smartphones. That's the concept behind your idea.

Sounds become annoying with time. But visual cues are often automated and ignored. This is why the current solution works best.

Because of the way we evolved, a sound automatically makes our brain alert. At first it's ok. But with time we learn that there is no actual danger. And the sound only becomes annoying. Making us alert for nothing.

Visual cues are treated differently. If something is deemed safe or accepted by the brain, you automatically start ignoring it and focus on something else. So an acknowledgement comes only when something is different. And even then, we simply notice it. It's not an actual alert like sound is.

So the idea is bad. It goes against the way our brains work.

I'm going to be that guy and say that this is a bad idea. When you're jumping through hoops to get attention, people get used to it. And they start expecting it by default. Especially when it's for a job.

There are very few companies that do not follow the standard interviewing practices. So if you try to filter them, you won't have enough to get a job.

Instead, you can try approaching things differently. People want to judge your abilities when they feel that it's critical to get the best employee. So you basically need to eliminate their fears. Networking and making friends works pretty good. If you are recommended by an existing employee, the interviewer will take it easy on you. Internships also work pretty good. There is less pressure. And when you prove yourself after a couple of weeks you can demand a salary or walk.

Homework is never a good idea. Searching for a job usually takes you through many companies. If at least half of them give you homework, you will waste days or even weeks just solving imaginary problems that nobody cares about. Solving tasks at home sounds like a good idea at first. But after you do it and the company chooses someone else, all you get is a bitter aftertaste.

As a personal note, it really helps if you treat the interviewers like stupid children. Some readers may be offended by this, but it really works. When you finally accept that he has no idea what he's doing, it will be much easier to control the interview.

Interviewers are rarely good programmers. If they start with something like FizzBuzz, you can easily tell that they don't have the ability to understand things. They just take ideas from somewhere and run with them. No originality, no abstract thought and no critical thinking. Once you see that and realize that you are better, performance anxiety will no longer be a problem.

You're basically being judged by people following a generic checklist they got from a blog or "top 10 interviewing tips" article. Understand their reasoning and you will own them.

Rent is about 1000 euros per month with everything included. Maybe less, maybe more depending on the area.

If your company is hiring, post some details. Everybody that sees this thread would be interested.

Companies complain there is a shortage. Everybody rushes to fill the demand, including students choosing a CS major over something else. Companies are then over-flooded with supply and get to pick what they want. It's a common tactic in capitalism.

If there really was a shortage, CS students would be recruited straight out of college. Instead, every software company wants years of experience for entry-level jobs. If they afford to put up ridiculous job requirements, they don't really need you. They simply want someone better for less money.

What does your team work on? Is software the main product or you're just a software division in a company with a different focus? Also, what percentage of the hired expats are British?

I lived in Amsterdam for the most part of last year. And dev meetups are rare and it's usually web stuff or startups.

There are only two types of meetings that happen almost every day:

1. The Appsterdam hub meetings. And they aren't for software engineers. It's mostly random startup people networking in the hopes of finding something.

2. The expat meetings. And it's mostly random expats networking in the hopes of finding something. Or at least trying to have a good time.

If you know any software engineering meetings, post them here so everybody who is interested can save some time. But I agree with Berlin and London. You can have more success there. Bigger cities with a lot more companies and communities.

The shortage isn't real. It's an illusion meant to drive the wages down.

Most companies are pretty comfortable with the current market. They don't need to bend over backwards in order to find new employees. They all rush to them from all over the world because of the apparent high demand. If there really was a shortage, wages would skyrocket. Instead, they are staying low and barely growing with inflation. Only twice the national average last I checked.

When a company says it cannot find talent, it's actually saying it cannot find talent at the price they are willing to pay. Everybody just wants cheaper workers.

Haven't been to San Francisco. So I can only give you my view of Amsterdam. And it's pretty disappointing for software engineers.

Basically, web development and mobile are king. And not in the good way. Both startups and bigger companies are focused on it. So if you're not into them, you will have a tough time finding a job. There are some engineering jobs too. But they are usually for support purposes. Banking, automotive, industrial etc. You work on software that supports another product. And you're basically non-essential personnel.

The startup scene is not very impressive. A small hub, an accelerator once a year and some meetups (mostly web dev). However, you will find plenty of coworking spaces. And there aren't many software companies either. Amsterdam is a small city. You will easily finish going through all of them in a couple of days.

When it comes to expats, Amsterdam is a city of self-employment. You either do some freelancing, work a low-paying job in hospitality or work on your startup. There are some expats with higher paying jobs. But they are the lucky ones. It takes a while until you find something. There are plenty of expats and dutch people looking for a job. And layoffs have become a common occurrence since the crisis finally hit the Netherlands. So trying to find something will be pretty hard.

So if you want to move, bring cash. You're going to need it.

It's not just Silicon Valley. More and more employers see employees as an unnecessary cost. Even though they would crash and burn without them. A lot of people are pretty delusional in the current business world.

Once you understand how the things around us work, jumping in a new field becomes easy. Everything is connected.

Most people can't do it. Recipes are required. Do that to obtain X result. And most people apply known principles and methods in order to obtain what they want. But if you understand how it all fits together, you create your own recipes. This is what we call innovation.

Some people manage to do it through brute force. Some people are simply born different. And it all boils down to what you want from life. There is no easy answer. Some people are simply driven and also have the mental capacity to understand.

You're part of a system. And the system educates people and we have to pay for it. When you enjoy privileges like infrastructure, but dismiss paying taxes to educate other people, you're a hypocrite. Who do you think built the world you see today? And with what money? You can't eat the cake and have it too.

Who said it does?

There is no free will. You can do what you will, but you cannot will what you will. It all comes automatically and you blindly follow it without any real control.

And if we think of the universe as a whole, your subjective perspective is like a worker thread in a computer program. You start with some specific parameters and evolve based on them. And at the same time there are multiple threads doing the same thing, but they have different parameters and a different evolution.

Your will boils down to simple programming. You make decisions based on your anatomy and life experience. Input parameters and program evolution (if/else mostly). When you're hungry your brain already decided if it needs glucose, protein or something else. Your will allows you only to satisfy the hunger or not. And that decision is made based on past experiences. What you ate and liked, what you didn't like, the fact that you decided at some point to lose weight, or to gain weight. A simple decision to eat a hamburger is powered by your entire life so far.

But if you really want something interesting to think about and you're a true hacker, look at the universe as a whole. At any point inside it matter either exists or it doesn't. Do you know any other binary-based ecosystem which contains different arrangements of data that evolve in time and space?

This type of tests are often used to filter mindless drones working in monotonous companies. If you have the patience to work with no pay on an imaginary problem for 10 hours straight, then you're a perfect fit.

If you value your sanity, avoid companies that ask for it. Although they do seem to increase in numbers at an alarming rate.

When you got hired as an interviewer, did they make you interview a couple of people at home before a phone screening? You know, to check out your interviewing skills and to see if you're good or not.

Also, do you do this with your doctors and lawyers too? Give them homework to see if they are worth the money?