SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
There is an interview with Joel Spolsky on GeekWire which reports that companies should Just shut up and let your devs concentrate:
If you want to attract and keep developers, don't emphasize ping-pong tables, lounges, fire pits and chocolate fountains. Give them private offices or let them work from home, because uninterrupted time to concentrate is the most important and scarcest commodity.
That's the view of Joel Spolsky, CEO of Stack Overflow, a popular Q&A site for programmers, who spoke this morning at the GeekWire Summit in Seattle.
"Facebook's campus in Silicon Valley is an 8-acre open room, and Facebook was very pleased with itself for building what it thought was this amazing place for developers," Spolsky said in an interview with GeekWire co-founder Todd Bishop. "But developers don't want to overhear conversations. That's ideal for a trading floor, but developers need to concentrate, to go to a chatroom and ask questions and get the answers later. Facebook is paying 40-50 percent more than other places, which is usually a sign developers don't want to work there."
[Continues...]
Spolsky, who in 2011 created project-management software Trello, said the "Joel Test" that he created 16 years ago is still a valid way for developers to evaluate prospective employers. It's a list of 12 yes-no questions, with one point given for every "yes" answer:
- Do you use source control?
- Can you make a build in one step?
- Do you make daily builds?
- Do you have a bug database?
- Do you fix bugs before writing new code?
- Do you have an up-to-date schedule?
- Do you have a spec?
- Do programmers have quiet working conditions?
- Do you use the best tools money can buy?
- Do you have testers?
- Do new candidates write code during their interview?
- Do you do hallway usability testing?
"The truth is that most software organizations are running with a score of 2 or 3, and they need serious help, because companies like Microsoft run at 12 full-time," Spolsky said when he created the test. He said that remains true today.
How well does your organization support its developers? If new or better equipment would improve your productivity, is it made available to you? How is your work environment? How well does your organization score on the 12-point "Joel Test"? What is the biggest thing blocking your company from improving?
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Monday October 10 2016, @10:34PM
Actually I can imagine you'd do well on the technical part of our servers as long as you get a couple of systems to maintain and improve, and with the humour in our team you might as well fit in nicely. (It's quite multicultural, 8 employees from 8 different nations - no American yet - , but all of us are capable of laughing about their own countries stereotypes.) But we do have some interactions with other teams, and there is some work that sometimes seems nonsensical. Just like someone asking you to write down a short algorithm for an interview: If you only do what you consider wise and walk out on everything else, that's exactly the point which does more harm than good to the team.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday October 10 2016, @11:03PM
People I can work with quite well. Stupid work I can do quite well too. Pointless work is what I'm not down with. Give me an actual, useful task and I'll save your guys a few minutes of work. If you like it, hire me. If you don't, I erase the whiteboard or take the paper, allow that I hope you have a nice day, and walk out. I was an independent consultant for over a decade, so I'm fine with occasionally having to eat some work. Never with pointless effort though. Everything I do has to have a purpose, even if it's a stupid one.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Monday October 10 2016, @11:25PM
Others wouldn't want to discuss "real" problems in an interview because they are concerned the "work" might be used in production without them getting payed. Because apparently in their mind it is cheaper to pay human resources to schedule an interview and a manager to ask bullshit questions to slip in the real task for 20 minutes then to pay a consultant for 1h and get some work done. (Yes, I assume it would be stupid to hire a consultant for 1h. It would take him more time to get familiar with the environment in the first place.)
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday October 11 2016, @01:28AM
Yup, that is why I said erase the whiteboard or walk out with the paper. Really though, you're not going to get quality code if the person writing it has no idea about the preferred styles for the project, what libraries they can make use of, what constants mean what, and the like. You can get a very simple and generic function/method/etc... that's about it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Tuesday October 11 2016, @04:52AM
That's why I usually ask for a very simple function only, which shouldn't require any external library. Amazingly, 90% of the candidates are still not capable to provide it. The whole idea was initially to have a discussion on how to test, identity corner cases etc. External libraries - good if you know them, but most bigger projects have their own set of helper functions etc. which the candidate cannot know anyway, and for generic libraries there is always is duckduckgo and alike to look up what you need when you need it.
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Tuesday October 11 2016, @10:00AM
Think we're mostly on the same page. I just want what I do to actually be used instead of given a letter grade and trashed. I don't get any money for good report cards any more.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.