>I recommend we discourage phrasing like "move up to management".
Word. At Etsy, we'd occasionally call out people (in a friendly way) for saying "I got a promotion to manager!" Someone (usually a more senior manager who used to be an IC) would say "not a promotion, lateral move." Drove the point home, at least at an IC level, that management is not a move up.
Do you need help? I'm completely on board for that mission and personally feel that we as an industry do a really bad job at testing past the evangelizing phase. Teaching people how to actually test code is something I think we need to do better.
I would! I love coding exercises meant to gain information about a candidate; they're like yardsticks for my professional growth. I love evaluating how I solve a problem now vs how I would have solved it while interviewing for the job I'm leaving. I also just enjoy solving problems. To me, doing a coding exercise is like doing a Tuesday crossword puzzle (they're never hard enough to be stressful) that I get to show off: Look how correctly I solved this, and in ink, with no mistakes, with very well written, clear words.
I don't see it as a waste of time; it's about the potential payoff, which is a (presumably) better job with better opportunities. I wouldn't apply to a job unless I was reasonably sure I wanted to work there anyway. I might be very lucky in that I've worked for good companies in the past few years and the only reason I'd leave one of these companies is for a much much better one. Usually when I leave a job, I've become bored of the problem domain anyway and am looking to solve new problems.
Disclosure: 31 year old man, no kids, I live with my partner.
It's about the potential payoff for me too. When I am not looking for a job (i.e. I am happy with the job I have) an offer to write some code for some company does not look very enticing. After all, if I already thought that company offers a better job, I'd been asking them for a job myself. The most I can offer in this situation is a chance to sell me on the job.
On the other hand, when I am looking for a job (I am unhappy at the current job ) I go far and wide as I am applying to multiple companies. In this situation I talk to the ones that ask for interviews first, as they appear more committed, and push all the tests after the interviews. From my limited experience, by the time the interviews clear up I have at least a couple of offers on hand. Offers I can identify with people I've been talking to, the environment I've seen, the location, the projects etc. Spending several days on tests, which, at best will bring an interview, which may or may not lead to an offer, which, in its turn, may or may not be better than the offers I already have now looks like plain gamble to me. So I take the best offer instead of doing any tests.
I hate to be that guy, but everything changes when you have kids. Trust me, a spare hour when you have nothing better to do than jump through some hoop for a company is an extremely rare luxury item when you've got little ones. I love solving problems too, but there aren't any technical problems as interesting as reading a book to your snuggly little human(s). :)
This is a reminder to me that it doesn't matter how great your idea is, or how technically impressive your product is. If the execution isn't right (in this case, who wants to do math awkwardly on their wrist with a tiny, hard to hold stylus? A calculator is much more comfortable) nobody will buy your product.
I had a Casio calculator watch that also included a video game for the ultimate in nerd entertainment. From what I remember, it consisted of scrolling numbers that you had to enter before they reached the edge of the screen, like in a typing tutor.
What I liked most about my watch was that it included many different alarm tones. I must have driven my parents crazy with those beeps.
I completely agree we should stop being paranoid about what's going to happen when we let other people loose on our beautiful code.
But I don't think having private methods or marking variables const is about paranoia, it's about communicating intent to the people who come behind you and using the compiler to enforce that intent. Every piece of extra context you can give to someone reading your code helps them understand why it's there. Identifiers like const and private are almost like nonverbal communication for code.
I love Zed cause even when he's sincerely offering help to someone struggling, he's still 100% Zed; can't even offer help without mentioning how badass he is. Whether you like him or not, being completely and utterly yourself is an admirable trait I think.
This has basically replaced ack for me. I was dubious of a web -based search tool when Kelly first sent an email about it, but after trying it a couple of times, I abandoned ack. It being linkable is extra icing on the cake for me.
Word. At Etsy, we'd occasionally call out people (in a friendly way) for saying "I got a promotion to manager!" Someone (usually a more senior manager who used to be an IC) would say "not a promotion, lateral move." Drove the point home, at least at an IC level, that management is not a move up.