[Coronita]

didn’t aptera go BK in 2005?

[Coronita]

Oh we don’t make the candidate do actual work. It’s basically a simple app that shouldn’t take longer than 2-3 hours. And basically, you write a simple app that loads a bunch of images from an image server like flicker or google photos using a public api, display it in a grid view, and allow you to zoom in on the image. Should be easy peasy….

Actually for our interview process, we offer a choice.

1. Take home assignment

or

2. Answer programming questions on an whiteboard in front of engineers

We don’t care which approach, and either is fine, but a lot of us wanted to offer this 1st option because a lot of us, including me don’t do well with the traditional whiteboard approach because we don’t write good code under duress and with people looking over our shoulder. And some people like me, knowing there’s the google/facebook style “grilling” interview, I don’t want spend time studying for an interview pretending I can solve these irrelevant brain teaser IQ questions that Google and similar companies love to give candidates to test their IQ than their skillset, and don’t want to be part of a system that encourages that practice. But that’s just me.

Almost all candidates choose (1)

Because a lot of candidates who otherwise would write software well but can’t do so under stress (like an 1 hour interview in front of people on a whiteboard) would rather take the same time at home in the comfort of their own place. And since it’s open book, open internet, open anything, we encourage people to be resourceful as if they were on the job and didn’t know how to do something to look it up themselves. We don’t care, as long as they are honest about it, and during the panel interview we ask questions about why they did certain things, and made certain decisions, or how does a piece of code they (might have) copied and pasted works…Because that’s what people these day do anyway….As long as you know what it does, doesn’t really matter if you wrote it from scratch or not.

And there’s been studies that the old style of technical interview does not really work well.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200714101228.htm

“Tech sector job interviews assess anxiety, not software skills”

“Technical interviews are feared and hated in the industry, and it turns out that these interview techniques may also be hurting the industry’s ability to find and hire skilled software engineers,” says Chris Parnin, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of a paper on the work. “Our study suggests that a lot of well-qualified job candidates are being eliminated because they’re not used to working on a whiteboard in front of an audience.”

Technical interviews in the software engineering sector generally take the form of giving a job candidate a problem to solve, then requiring the candidate to write out a solution in code on a whiteboard — explaining each step of the process to an interviewer.

Previous research found that many developers in the software engineering community felt the technical interview process was deeply flawed. So the researchers decided to run a study aimed at assessing the effect of the interview process on aspiring software engineers.

For this study, researchers conducted technical interviews of 48 computer science undergraduates and graduate students. Half of the study participants were given a conventional technical interview, with an interviewer looking on. The other half of the participants were asked to solve their problem on a whiteboard in a private room. The private interviews did not require study participants to explain their solutions aloud, and had no interviewers looking over their shoulders.

Researchers measured each study participant’s interview performance by assessing the accuracy and efficiency of each solution. In other words, they wanted to know whether the code they wrote would work, and the amount of computing resources needed to run it.

“People who took the traditional interview performed half as well as people that were able to interview in private,” Parnin says. “In short, the findings suggest that companies are missing out on really good programmers because those programmers aren’t good at writing on a whiteboard and explaining their work out loud while coding.”

Also, interesting note:

The researchers also note that the current format of technical interviews may also be used to exclude certain job candidates.

“For example, interviewers may give easier problems to candidates they prefer,” Parnin says. “But the format may also serve as a barrier to entire classes of candidates. For example, in our study, all of the women who took the public interview failed, while all of the women who took the private interview passed. Our study was limited, and a larger sample size would be needed to draw firm conclusions, but the idea that the very design of the interview process may effectively exclude an entire class of job candidates is troubling.”

What’s more, the specific nature of the technical interview process means that many job candidates try to spend weeks or months training specifically for the technical interview, rather than for the actual job they’d be doing.

“The technical interview process gives people with industry connections an advantage,” says Mahnaz Behroozi, first author of study and a Ph.D. student at NC State. “But it gives a particularly large advantage to people who can afford to take the time to focus solely on preparing for an interview process that has very little to do with the nature of the work itself.

“And the problems this study highlights are in addition to a suite of other problems associated with the hiring process in the tech sector, which we presented at ICSE-SES [the International Conference on Software Engineering, Software Engineering In Society],” adds Behroozi. “If the tech sector can address all of these challenges in a meaningful way, it will make significant progress in becoming more fair and inclusive. More to the point, the sector will be drawing from a larger and more diverse talent pool, which would contribute to better work.”

[Coronita]

[quote=utcsox][quote=Coronita]What would you consider a worse scenario.

2. An entry level mobile engineer with 1 year of relevant experience, remote worker, based in “lower cost” Texas, demanding $118k/year because thats the offer he got elsewhere….and your boss and recruiter yelling at you because you balked and said no, considering 2 months ago, it only cost your budget $95k…

..it really sucks to be the person hiring these days just like it sucks to be the one trying to buy a house today…

[/quote]

Can you explain on why it really sucks to be the person hiring these days?[/quote]

Sure.. It’s basically like trying to buy a house today. Limited supply, everyone else wants to buy a house. Supply and demand driving up prices.

Similar for mobile engineers, even before pre-covid, it was already hard to find well qualified mobile engineers. It took us about 2 months to find 3 good middle level engineers. When covid hit, my company decided (stupidly, out of my control) to furlough all engineers 1 day per week. For california employees,that was great because under CA covid-19 unemployment laws, all the furloughed engineers were paid 32 hours, and then could claim unemployment on the 5th day under CA’s worksharing program, which worked out ok because engineers were paid more that day with the state AND federal lump sum UI benefit (came out to be about $1000/day)

But there were a bunch of non-CA engineers that didn’t have tje same state benefit that allowed them to qualify for state UI benefits since it was only 1 day of lost work…no state UI benefit, then no federal lump sum $600 benefit too… So, well, they quit and found a job quickly within 2-3 weeks by companies that never closed or reduced hours…

Now that we are back to full business (and more, since we have a lot of interest from old and new customers) that need our product to safely reopen, I need to staff up in addition to the engineers I lost.

Problemville: those that are good and looking for a job have 4-5 offers chasing them, and since remote-work has been proven to be a viable option, we’re competing a lot with Bay Area companies, even for the employees that traditionally are located in lower cost areas like Florida, Texas, Idaho, etc. Because most companies are offering 3 choices

1. Fully remote
2. Hybrid (X days in office, Y days remote)
3. Fully in office

just like us…

So the candidates that use to be in lower cost areas..wages has gone up considerably, since they no longer are stuck working at a company in their local area that might want to pay lower.

The funny part is my company is headquartered in FL and for the longest time has complained they don’t want to hire anyone in CA because of the much higher salaries…Well, now that some CA companies went into Florida and are offering remote opportunities at CA salaries, companies in Florida like mine are going through a painful awakening:

1. denial: “nah, that’s not happening. We can still find senior engineers for under $100k”

to

2. shock: “what do you mean a junior engineer that is asking for $115-8k has 3 offers in that range…”

to

3. depression: “we haven’t been able to fill these jobs in the past 3-6 months and it’s starting to impact our business”…

I was called into a meeting, and it started out with …”why haven’t these positions been filled”… And I bluntly said, “well originally you offered a shitty comp package. And now you’re offering something that would have been good 3-4 months ago, but now this is on the low side too. I suggested you hire new pr 1-2 year newbies to train them up… months ago, when no one else was hiring and they were looking for a job..You said you weren’t willing to do that. But now, you’ve changed your mind, but guess what? So has every other company. So you’re going to compete for well qualified new grads and those with 1-2 years experience too…”

The candidates I’m talking to are not even based in CA. These are candidates in the middle of the US…I’m not even really considering CA candidates, and when asked why, I bluntly said “because you can’t afford them…” Speaking of which, I have an interview this week…lol…

Then there was this candidate that we wanted to move into round 2 of the interview, and the way we do it do a take home assignment that the candidate can work on his free time (without the pressure/stress of a chalkboard/whiteboarding programming exercise in traditional interview)…But the candidate got all butt hurt that it took 2-3 hours, and then was upset that the earliest interview time we could give him was 4 days later….So he leaves a negative review on Glassdoor complaining about it..I was like WTF…And he wasn’t even that good and definitely not at the comp’s he wanted…

It’s a great time to be a mobile engineer with a shred of experience. You can get a lot of mileage out of it right now, probably more so than most other engineering types. When I find my next gig, all is fair if I poach my old team, lol…

There’s like a $8000 bounty for each referral at my company. I’m pretty sure other companies have similar things. If I can poach an entire team, that’s like a good $100k lol.

[Coronita]

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[Coronita]

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[Coronita]

[quote=scaredyclassic][quote=Coronita][quote=scaredyclassic][quote=Coronita]alright scaredy….Given that I’ve gotten beaten twice over the past 2 days over properties I wanted….

I bought EQR instead. Sorry, you know this means it’s going to start to correct now that I did that. Now you are really screwed…sorry.[/quote]

Dammit. The dumbest thing anyone can do is take investment advice from me.

I never offer people I know my thoughts for fear they might act on it and silently blame me later.

I thought you had more sense than to listen to me, flu.

I was thinking this is more like a 10 year buy and hold. It could easily sink 25 perc. By fall. I definitely wouldn’t hold money I needed soon in there.

Still, it doesn’t seem like the worst thing to hold.[/quote]

I’m up $250 for EQR today… Whohoo!

You know we’re in an stock market bubble when people are desperate enough and invest in something based on the whim of what gets posted on a blog….

Oh wait…..shet….

EQR Baby![/quote]

I don’t actually believe it’s a good idea. Just better than doing nothing.[/quote]

I think it’s a great idea. Certainly better than what I’m doing lol.

[Coronita]

[quote=scaredyclassic][quote=Coronita]I don’t think really anyone knows what really will happen in UT or an SD or the US.

Maybe the book of the revelations plays out, the Trump the antichrist comes back everyone dies, and we all go to heaven and hell.

who knows.

oh well. life is short. We all end up the same way into the ground. Some earlier than others.

That said, every offer that i put in these days have it rounded up to some form 666 in them. Hey, it worked for one offer. I went into escrow with it.

For example. List price $520? Offer price $546,666
List price $620? Offer price $666,666
List price $440? Offer price $466,666

That or maybe it was because I made an appointment with a car dealer to test drive a car knowing that if I do that a RE purchase will derail that plan. Maybe that’s why I lost the last two bids. I forgot to reschedule that…[/quote]

im not going into the ground. my request is to have the flesh stripped from my bones and the skeleton kept as family heirloom.

2nd choice, donate to medicine.

3rd choice, burial at sea.

4th choice, leave outdoors for scavengers

5th choice, cryofreeze.

6th choice, cremation.[/quote]

On my last 5-8 years of my life expectancy, I’m hoping there will be an option to take a 1 way trip to Mars…

Utah , San Diego? Pfff… Mars real estate will definitely be up and coming.

[Coronita]

I don’t think really anyone knows what really will happen in UT or an SD or the US.

Maybe the book of the revelations plays out, the Trump the antichrist comes back everyone dies, and we all go to heaven and hell.

who knows.

oh well. life is short. We all end up the same way into the ground. Some earlier than others.

That said, every offer that i put in these days have it rounded up to some form 666 in them. Hey, it worked for one offer. I went into escrow with it.

For example. List price $520? Offer price $546,666
List price $620? Offer price $666,666
List price $440? Offer price $466,666

That or maybe it was because I made an appointment with a car dealer to test drive a car knowing that if I do that a RE purchase will derail that plan. Maybe that’s why I lost the last two bids. I forgot to reschedule that…

[Coronita]

I take that back about houses being unaffordable and people starting out with lower income can’t afford to stay here.

Our glorious state is going to take care of this very soon, so everyone can buy a house….ha ha

https://www.businessinsider.com/california-dream-for-all-program-senate-democrats-new-home-costs-2021-6
“If you’re a Californian, the state wants to cover almost half the cost of your new home”

Do it!
$1.9 -> 2.5 million in 92130 and $500-600k+ MM 1/1 condos here we come, lol!

Once upon a time our fiat currency wasn’t so fiat. Print Baby, print!!! ha ha

[img_assist|nid=27391|title=|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=260|height=176]

[Coronita]

just for shits and giggles

1/1s in Mira Mesa were $135-45 in 2010 and closer to 160-70 in 2012-13. rent is now $1850ish…

i dont think i would want to sell and buy a condo in UT for $335kish that rents for $1500….but thats just me…

[Coronita]

…but personally, I can’t wait for housing prices to crash across the U.S….I personally wouldn’t mind a repeat of what we saw in 2009-2011…This time it will be different. I’ll be racking and stacking as many houses as i can and won’t be quibbling over $5000-10000k like I foolishly did last time. Those were penny foolish decisions last time. Unfortunately, I don’t think it will happen to the extent it did again. That’s really too bad.

[Coronita]

I think there’s one huge advantage of CA over Utah. It’s THE place to be if you want to be in the film industry… Especially in the adult film industry….And we know how lucrative the film industries can be, right flyer?

You can’t do that in Utah, for various reasons…Something about religion and alcohol…I mean, if Evelyn Lin went to BYU instead of UCSD, there probably wouldn’t have been an Evelyn Lin. What a tragedy that would have been

[Coronita]

i dont know considering CA is a large state, i think its pretty amazing despite all the expenses, CA still managed to pull off a budget surplus. and now its pretty low in the infection rate.

Im happy for you that you moved to UT for your kids EconProf. its nice to be next to family wherever one may be.

i think you should be happy with that decision and stop feeling you need to find internet validation that you made the right decision.

[Coronita]

[quote=deadzone][quote=XBoxBoy][quote=Coronita][quote=deadzone]Yet amazingly with so many folks supposedly leaving CA rent and prices in CA are also going up as much or more.[/quote]

We’ve gone over this. Most of the people leaving the state are the lower income people who can afford to stay. Higher net worth/income people still move here.

and not all of CA is ridiculously priced..[/quote]

Is there data to support the argument that the people leaving the state are lower income or is that something we just tell ourselves? I’m not saying it’s not true, I’m just wondering if it is supported by the data.

(Worth mentioning, I’ve seen data that says lower income people are more likely to move than higher income people, but that’s not the same as arguing that the pool of people in CA is changing because the lower income people are leaving and higher income people are moving here.)[/quote]

No there is no data, this is just a theory pushed by two people on Piggington (who just happen to be the two most prolific posters) based purely on anecdotal evidence.

There might be some truth to it, but if so, it is due to foreign and Wall St. investment money buying in CA which in my opinion are the two main factors pushing up the extreme prices.[/quote]

I don’t know if you were were referring to me or not, but in case you were, I’m not really trying to push a theory or not. I’m just offering what I’ve seen at least based on what I’ve seen during the demand as applied to my own rentals. Carmel Valley was a pain in the ass to rent out 1 year ago for me because the tenant pool of people were pretty pain in the ass-ish…I guess when you ask for $4300/month, they feel they are entitled to the world and wanted a 6 month lease at best.

This year, post pandemic, got a lot of interest from people migrating south… A much less pain in the ass tenant pool at $5000/month…Some wanting to sign a 3-4 year lease, which obviously I said no.
Others renting homes at this price point said the same thing. Much easier to rent higher cost SFH now than it was 1-2 years ago.

if you really want to delve into this, I guess you can contact this journalist…

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-04/california-exodus-san-francisco-migration

[Coronita]

[quote=scaredyclassic][quote=Coronita]alright scaredy….Given that I’ve gotten beaten twice over the past 2 days over properties I wanted….

I bought EQR instead. Sorry, you know this means it’s going to start to correct now that I did that. Now you are really screwed…sorry.[/quote]

Dammit. The dumbest thing anyone can do is take investment advice from me.

I never offer people I know my thoughts for fear they might act on it and silently blame me later.

I thought you had more sense than to listen to me, flu.

I was thinking this is more like a 10 year buy and hold. It could easily sink 25 perc. By fall. I definitely wouldn’t hold money I needed soon in there.

Still, it doesn’t seem like the worst thing to hold.[/quote]

I’m up $250 for EQR today… Whohoo!

You know we’re in an stock market bubble when people are desperate enough and invest in something based on the whim of what gets posted on a blog….

Oh wait…..shet….

EQR Baby!

[Author]

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