Monday Links: Interviewing, Zombies, and Burnout
01 May 2023 #mondaylinksFor this Monday Links, I’d like to share five reads about interviewing, motivation, and career. These are five articles I found interesting in the past month or two.
Programming Interviews Turn Normal People into A-Holes
This is a good perspective on the hiring process. But from the perspective of someone who was the hiring manager. Two things I like about this one: “Never ask for anything that can be googled,” and “Decide beforehand what questions you will ask because I find that not given any instructions, people will resort to asking trivia or whatever sh*t library they are working on.”
I’ve been in those interviews that feel like an interrogatory. The only thing missing was a table in the middle of a dark room with a two-way mirror. Like in spy movies. Arrrggg!
Demotivating a (Skilled) Programmer
From this article, a message for bosses: “…(speaking about salaries, dual monitors, ping pong tables) These things are ephemeral, though. If you don’t have him working on the core functionality of your product, with tons of users, and an endless supply of difficult problems, all of the games of ping pong in the world won’t help.”
How to Turn Software Engineers Into Zombies
This is a good post with a sarcastic tone and a good lesson. These are some ideas to turn software engineers into walking dead bodies:
- “Always give them something to implement, not to solve”
- “When it comes time for promotion come up with some credible silly process they have to go through in order to get something”
- “If you keep hiring, you will always pay less per employee.”
I had to confess that I never saw the previous third point coming. Those are only three. The post has even more.
How to Spot Signs of Burnout Culture Before You Accept a Job
We only have one chance of giving a first impression. Often the first impression we have about one company is the job listing itself. This post shows some clues to read between the lines to detect toxic culture from companies.
I ran from companies with “work under pressure” or “fast pace changing environment” anywhere in the job description. Often that screams: “We don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re already late.” Arrgggg!
Numbers To Know For Managing (Software Teams)
I read this one with a bit of skepticism. I was expecting: sprint velocity, planned story points, etc. But I found some interesting metrics, like _five is the number of comments on a document before turning it into a meeting” and “one is the number of times to reverse a resignation.”
Voilà! Another Monday Links. Have you ever found those interrogatories? Sorry, I meant interviews. Do your company track sprint velocity and story points? What metrics do they track instead? Until next Monday Links.
In the meantime, don’t miss the previous Monday Links on Passions, Estimates, and Methodologies.
Happy coding!