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As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | Scott_MacGregor: Hi Yang,I would recommend putting some personal pics of you and your friend’s mountain biking on your webpage. It will make you come across a little different than the other candidates.Also, the page looks very 1998-notepad-hand-coded html. Not the best calling card for a computer geek dude. Go get som... |
How to make money as a CS student? | breck: Shoot me a message on skype or gchat and I'll give you some ideas. breck_yunits on skype or breck7 on gmail |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | keyist: I do technical hiring for my company. Here's a bunch of things that I personally like to see -- may not apply to larger, non-startup employers though.* mention in the initial e-mail whether you're applying as local or remote* mention in the initial e-mail your availability (immediate, two weeks on notification... |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | thejo: These are very basic, but here goes -* Most interviewers, especially at big companies, don't take the time to read a resume in detail. Also, it is usually difficult to access websites if all they have is a hard copy of your resume. Make it easy for the interviewer to access your work during the interview. Use a ... |
How to make money as a CS student? | cgherb911: We constantly try to get interns willing to work for free at our start up. We get a lot of qualified interns happy to work because we give them interesting work. But if you can leverage your skills and add real value to the start up, ask for compensation. Negotiate a payment plan based on accomplishments.... |
Equity for a first employee | strlen: I've said a few times recently on this site: if you're the first engineer in a start-up, you're either a (co-)founder or a chump.Ask for founder level equity and founder level control (both over the business idea and the technical implementation: non-technical "managers" have a nasty tendency to make horrible t... |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | ghotli: Recently I interviewed roughly twenty candidates for a software development position. There were a handful of recurring things the candidates did that bothered me.If given a programming problem, don't stand/sit quietly while you work out the solution. Give the interviewer some insight to your thought processes.... |
Regression to the mean math question | roundsquare: Don't do a least squares line. That doesn't help. In the first plot, you'll see that in general:x < mean => y > xx > mean => y < xIf the scores are normalized. Regression to the mean is that most people move towards the mean in subsequent games/attempts/whatever.But I fail to see what has changed in the... |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | Dav3xor: I interviewed 2 recent college grads about a year ago, and they both had the same problem. Both had a demo they had made (this was for someone to help with OpenGL work), and seemed to be reasonably competent and intelligent.What I worry about most is whether someone will be easy to work with. I assume most p... |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | drusenko: From a startup company's perspective (hiring a web developer):- Any effort you make to show interest in the company goes a long way. Use the software, come prepared to talk about what you did/didn't like, and have questions for me. Are you interested in working here? Then you should be full of questions!- Hav... |
Visas | nzmsv: I'd say getting a university degree would be the single best thing you could do. Yes, some will argue you can have experience without a formal education, but immigration programs are very bureaucratic.Learn the things you'll hear people dismiss as "academic". They do that because those things are hard :) There a... |
What is going on with Captchas ? | Murkin: The captcha that blocked me: http://dinkevich.com/sample_captcha.jpg |
How do you overcome perfectionism? | jgamman: i just stop worrying about it after a while |
Equity for a first employee | wlievens: Doesn't that hugely depend on his salary? |
What is going on with Captchas ? | entelarust: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/captchas-affect-on-conversion-rat... |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | tyler: What bothers me most is when a candidate gives off a "this is below me vibe". I tend to start with quick, easy questions and work toward much more difficult ones. Candidates often act as if answering these easier questions is below them... And then choke on the hard questions.To me, acting haughty is a good in... |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | theyoungceo: Like many of us, I read the recent article along the lines of You're a Small Business, Now Act Like One. I've been hiring a lot lately so here's how I think that parlays into applying for a job.You're a job candidate yes, but you're an interesting person with tastes and opinions, so act like one. Don't be ... |
Equity for a first employee | lportnoff: 1% could be too high and 5% too low. I have always operated under the assumption that to pay someone fair value is important. So if someone is coming on board and taking risk, that risk needs to be compensated. Usually we have brought people in at below market wages and made up the difference in the form o... |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | idebug: in all my experience in hiring at my company, the one thing i find that 99% of applicants fail to understand is that a company is hiring a person to fit a certain need that is being unmet. therefore, listing a long resume full of all the impressive things you have done, but are completely irrelevant to the posi... |
How to make money as a CS student? | jeromec: The most obvious thing to me is freelance coding jobs. Try a site like Guru.com or Rent-a-coder. You can build experience as well as client references, and if you're good take on larger jobs. |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | maddalab: I wonder if you are asking the correct question. Your frustration from the process seems to stem from not having received an offer yet. Would you not rather ask the question, what can applicants do to obtain an offer from prospective employers every time? You might want to keep the discussion focussed by prov... |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | thaumaturgy: I don't think there's much in the way of guidelines or advice that would apply to all employers. Although you're probably focused on just getting a job (and understandably frustrated with that at this point), some employers just won't be a good match for you. So, adopt some of the methods that seem like th... |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | petervandijck: Take initiative. I hire UX people. I give them little assignments. One of them did some user research with her friends before doing the assignment -> hired! Come with a critique of our existing website, and we'll take you very seriously. Any kind of initiative beyond the standard boring stuff is much app... |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | petervandijck: Also, please accept that people don't read your resume, they've probably skimmed it and don't necessarily remember which resume you were. You are the one that should do the homework. |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | edw519: When I hire, I'm not looking for a person or a resource. I'm looking for a solution to my problem. Sometimes that problem is big, sometimes it's urgent. But there's always a problem needing to be solved. The more a candidate looks like a solution to my problem, the closer to the front of the pile he/she get... |
Is this a bad situation? | yummyfajitas: Leave unless they pay you market rates.They are not treating you as employee #1 of a startup. Therefore, you should treat them the same way you would treat Big Employer. |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | citizenparker: I read resumes all the time, a few tips:* At your level of experience, you should ABSOLUTELY have only one page. If your LinkedIn profile is a reflection of your current resume, there's a fair amount you can cut from that if you need to make room. Things like "Tool was eventually taken up by QA team" isn... |
Is this a bad situation? | fuelfive: The tax liability thing could be real. Has the company received a valuation in the time since you started working? Let's say that you took a series A with a 5M post-money valuation. Then, your 1% would show up on your tax returns as $50,000 of income. What I would do is ask the company to take the tax hit on ... |
Is this a bad situation? | grellas: Potentially bad indicators.The tax issue may be real but workarounds include giving you a grant of options exercisable at current fair market value, which gives you the opportunity to get the 1% equity without taking any immediate tax hit (you would have to pay more for the equity at the time of exercise than ... |
Is this a bad situation? | patio11: I was employee #4,256 (sequential badge numbers!) at a major Japanese megacorp and didn't get a contract until well after I had passed the point of no return on the job offer. Not having a contract yet is bad only to the extent that you believe it to bad. (Americans are taught that paper is magic, but it is ... |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | ggruschow: Send me cookies, or really, do anything that shows you're more (better) than your resume. Fresh homemade chocolate chip cookies are probably best though unless you know my humor or work and send me something even more personalized.My opinion is unlikely to match with big corporations. Also, I'm not a skitti... |
Is age an issue? | brk: Without blathering on too much...Yes, age is an issue.If you are too young, there is a worry that you will be some combination of immature, inexperienced, difficult, unreliable.If you are too old, there is a worry that you will be some combination of less productive, untrainable, unreliable, demotivated, coasting.... |
Is age an issue? | mbrubeck: Some companies want someone who is already an expert at a particular tool. Some have good reasons for this, some bad.Also, you'll find that a bunch of programmers these days basically consider Java to be the entire programming universe. Many of them have gone through university and several jobs without bein... |
Is this a bad situation? | SamAtt: I say run for the hills. A lot of the posts here parse tax law or try other ways to understand why the equity would be switched to a bonus.My opinion is much simpler. If verbal promises are being broken this early in your relationship you shouldn't take a job that specifically asks you to make sacrifices base... |
Is age an issue? | sophacles: (warning: some pretty broad generalizations ahead)From what I've seen, it depends on the area in which you want to program. The areas that fetishize the new (for being new) have a tendency to dislike experienced/older people. Particularly noticeable amongst web frontend people I've worked with. In places wi... |
What Can I Do About this Freelance Gig Gone Wrong? | gexla: What can you do?I'm surprised you don't know what to do about this situation already. You have been a freelance developer for a certain period of time, and you should have known how to be professional in this sort of situation.First off, communication is number one. You entered this agreement in the first plac... |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | nailer: As a previous poster said 'can you do that? Have you done that?' is the first thing I look for.I also look for people who know why rather than just how. I'm looking for someone who understands the platform (generally a flavor of Linux) rather than someone who is great at rote-learning commands (which a lot of l... |
What's best for a career path? MBA or Certifications? | Adrenalist: Clickable links:Oracle Certificationhttp://education.oracle.com/pls/web_prod-plq-dad/db_pages.ge...-----MBA for IT Professionalshttp://www.bryant.edu/wps/wcm/connect/Bryant/Divisions/Acade... |
Is age an issue? | scottw: I'll say "sort of."If I'm a good manager, I'll take you for who you are and evaluate you individually. I know a handful of awesome coders over 50 who are awesome primarily because they a) work really hard, b) learn new stuff all the time, and c) have a ton of valuable experience.However, most of the programmers... |
Is this a bad situation? | pg: If you've been working there for months and they verbally offered you equity, that should be set up by now.There are ways to grant equity without causing tax troubles for the recipient. If there weren't, how could the employees of any startup get equity? |
Is this a bad situation? | jason_tko: Irregardless of whether or not you're happy with the current or future offer, I would be very concerned about the management.Not being able to openly and honestly communicate the parameters of your deal, which is their responsibility if they're doing the hiring, is a very bad sign and doesn't bode well for t... |
Christmas gift ideas? | jason_tko: Anything from ThinkGeek!
http://www.thinkgeek.com/With the obvious exception of "Star Trek Cologne and Perfume". What they hell were they thinking. |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | xiaoma: I wish they actually read the job requirements. It would save me from reading hundreds of applications that are a waste of my time. |
Is age an issue? | markkanof: Regarding the detailed questions about APIs, I think that can sometimes indicate an interviewer that hasn't really given much thought to the type of skills that are needed to do the job. I've been guilty of this myself. Asking quiz type questions that really only test the candidates ability to memorize and ... |
Is age an issue? | hvs: I don't require applicants to have memorized frameworks, APIs, and other implementation-specific details in my interviews. I ask general programming/computer science questions that get to their level of knowledge. I also have them do a programming test before they come to the interview, and allow them to do it i... |
Christmas gift ideas? | patio11: If you have a voracious reader in your life, consider a Kindle. I enjoy it more than anything I have ever bought. |
Is age an issue? | maddalab: Yes, age is an issue but only at some organizations and you are probably better off staying away.A couple of observations on interviews focussed on api's -I do not have a problem with being asked a question on specific api if I have listed it in my skill sets. I would not expect to answer an api question on s... |
Is age an issue? | eugenejen: Memorizing was important when you have no other way to document information. But I doubt it to be important when you know how to search and judge/experiment the information recently. Sometime people ask for apis just to see whether the person had experience with the technology.At the other hand, remember imp... |
Is age an issue? | DanielBMarkham: I think this is a "is it a bug or a feature?" type of conversation. Some folks will see age as a bug, some as a feature.I'm in my 40s, so I'm closer to you than the younger crowd. I've also had quite a bit of experience hiring folks, and it's never been an issue for me.I once had a contract with a compa... |
Christmas gift ideas? | tomjen2: Cash. Or if they have no understanding of Economics, a gift card to Amazon. |
Christmas gift ideas? | jeromec: I'm thinking of getting my parents a roomba. Anyone have any experience with those? |
Unethical Programming? | dkersten: Regarding games, Richard Bartles book, Designing Virtual Worlds, touches on this topic. Its an interesting read.Would you write a program that people would rather play than have lunch? A game that millions of people spend 40-hours-a-week on, like Wow?I have no issues with this. Then again, I never did get int... |
Is age an issue? | sammcd: I'm just a college student that codes, so I don't know much about if age is an issue.However your backing seems to be because of one specific case. Memorizing ever changing APIs. Just wanted to say I have the exact same thoughts and I'm young. I have been asked this type question. My response is usually wel... |
Is age an issue? | eli: It shouldn't be, but it absolutely is.There's a stereotype of what a "good developer" looks like and it isn't someone over 40. I also think lots of people would feel uncomfortable supervising someone much older than themselves. |
Is age an issue? | dfranke: If you're looking for a job as a Java programmer, then I think it's reasonable for the interviewer to expect you to be able to give some sort of answer to "what is your favorite Java class". Being asked the signature of a specific method is pretty bogus, though. If you're getting a lot of questions like that... |
Is age an issue? | nailer: I'm 28. I've been working fulltime for 11 years now and make great money in the environments you describe.I would kill to be starting out now: not for the sake of youth, but for:* top-tier CS courses using dynamically typed langiages.* English-like languages being considered a 'grown up' solution* Microsoft not... |
Christmas gift ideas? | abyssknight: Things I may buy for people this year: * Super Mario Brothers Wii
* The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception
* Forbidden Lego: Build the Models Your Parents Warned You Against!
* Bluray player
* Netflix subscription / renewal
* Lomography film camera(s) |
What do you call your "users"? | cperciva: I always talk about "Tarsnap users". |
What do you call your "users"? | mbrubeck: After working at Amazon I'm still in the habit of saying "customers," even outside of the retail context. (For example, the users of an in-house development tool are "internal customers.") |
Unethical Programming? | stonemetal: >>Would you write a program that people would rather play than have lunch?Heck yeah, I would sell it as a weight control device.>>is there such a thing as unethical programming?Sure writing a program that by design, or through gross negligence, does unethical things is unethical programming.Is car manufactu... |
Is age an issue? | qeorge: There's advantages and disadvantages to older coders. The biggest disadvantages are that you have a family and responsibilities, and your health insurance is a lot more expensive.If you're a great programmer, who's interested in learning new technologies, that's not such a big deal. But honestly, your "when goo... |
Is age an issue? | deanj: Age shouldn't be an issue, but it is. I've worked with many young developers that think anyone over 30 doesn't have a clue.The real problem is that some developers over 50 refuse to learn new things, and that gives younger folks a tainted view of all older developers.Frankly, getting older and having the potent... |
Is age an issue? | Poiesis: Age is not an issue[1]. Ability is an issue. Experience is an issue.You could be 60 years old and have just started learning software development last year. The funny part? That still doesn't necessarily tell you much about the ability level. A year of development experience does tend to put an upper limi... |
Is age an issue? | frankus: I'm still a bit of a spring chicken compared to you, but my biggest stumbling block (at least in the relatively tiny technical job market where I live) is that interesting generalist jobs don't pay as well as older (i.e. not just out of college) employees are used to.The high pay is restricted to employees of ... |
Is this a bad situation? | run4yourlives: If you have a problem with what you are getting paid or otherwise compensated, they are the people you need to talk to, not us.You already have a value that you consider to be fair, and clearly you aren't receiving that. They need to know that you feel this way, exactly.They may agree and choose to impro... |
Is age an issue? | Ixiaus: One of my most valued mentors is in his late fifties. He was easily one of the top programmers in his field at the time. He can still carry conversations with me about LISP, Fortran, and C programming as well as PHP, MySQL, and AJAX development.He does lack in a few areas where the industry is really nascent; b... |
Is age an issue? | Travis: One bias that might be working against you is actually your longevity in the field. Coding turns over quickly; lots of programmers move to other fields or move up the ranks. To a lot of hiring managers, staying in the same career for a long time indicates an unwillingness or inability to try new things. For ... |
Ask HN:Sales commissions and finding distribution channels for software products | dirtjockey: Here are some options:Lead Generator: (undergrad degree with energy)
Basically they will hit the phone all day and setup appointments to speak with potential customers. Salary: 30k-40k a year with bonuses based on appointments and closed opportunities running about $2k - $3k a quarter.Account Executive: ... |
Christmas gift ideas? | spthorn: A Pattern Language presents a compelling way of thinking about "place". It clarifies what so many have longed for in the way of community, and shows clearly what's wrong and what to change to fix it. I highly recommend it for everyone! |
Is age an issue? | bigtech: My TRS-80 had 4K, so the Basic language used one-letter abbreviations for all the commands. I tried learning Z80 on it, but it was a bit too tough for me; 6502 was a breeze in comparison. fwiw, stick with it if you enjoy it! |
As an employer, what do you wish applicants did more often? | yangman: Definitely some good advice here.I never wanted to make this about myself, but I thought it appropriate to point out that I just received and accepted an offer from a place I interviewed with last week (one of the few fantastic interview experiences I've had). Much thanks to all the encouragements and good lu... |
Advice for Payment Processing? | wgj: Paypal's new "X" service supposedly fits your needs exactly:https://www.x.com/index.jspaI haven't tried it yet myself, but am keeping an eye on it and would like to hear anyone's experiences.I am currently working on a project that uses a traditional gateway (Chase/Paymentech) to collect funds, and then uses a pay... |
Please review my webapp: Playlistr | e1ven: I'm on a machine without sound at the moment, so I didn't get a chance to try the resulting playlist, but the interface is very easy to understand, and useful to throw together quickly.Are you going to extend it to other genres later on?
Since this is sending a standard m3u file, would it work on the iphone?Sou... |
Please review my webapp: Playlistr | revorad: Good effort sli! I was all set to hear some drum n bass when I clicked Generate playlist. But was surprised when Winamp popped up! I had even forgotten I had it on my computer.I think you should have an embedded music player. There are tons of free swf's out there.It's good that you've identified a problem - m... |
Please review my webapp: Playlistr | nym: You need a tagline. My first reaction was "what does this do? something about music?". Obviously with more effort I was able to figure it out."Custom playlists in 3 steps" would do it.Also your "Generate Playlist" button doesn't immediately read as a button. See this article to see what I mean: http://www.smashing... |
Artistic integrity desirable but entrepreneurship integrity is not? | pg: Novelists often do pander to audiences to increase sales. And plenty of companies choose not to do things they think are morally dubious.One difference between the two cases is that companies generally have shareholders whose interest they're supposed to act in. |
How to promote a website, while keeping it a secret | tokenadult: Just launch. Simply launch. |
How to promote a website, while keeping it a secret | jacquesm: set up an invite only system, give out 10 invites and only allow people to invite one other person per day. |
Artistic integrity desirable but entrepreneurship integrity is not? | jlees: A novelist's already done this to name characters:http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robinsloan/robin-writes-... |
ZumoDrive vs. Dropbox | kentf: ZumoDrive |
How to promote a website, while keeping it a secret | pbhjpbhj: What would attract you to sign up for 'something-you-dont-know'?Nothing.Perhaps cold hard cash. |
ZumoDrive vs. Dropbox | frisco: ZumoDrive is an awesome idea -- be truly extra space, not just a mirror of a folder that has to exist locally, too. But it's been extremely unstable on Mac OS X for me. I wish it worked and toyed with it for a long time, but it kept doing things like hanging my entire machine at startup for 5 or 6 minutes unt... |
ZumoDrive vs. Dropbox | Shamiq: Can you make a poll instead? |
Is it a good or bad time to launch during the holidays? | samaparicio: I would say, it depends on the orientation of your business. If you're targeting cosumers, they may have more time on their hands during the holidays to go play with your service.If it's targeted towards business, forget it, now is a terrible time to launch. For the same reason, people in business have the... |
Is it a good or bad time to launch during the holidays? | bhousel: As the saying goes: "Launch as early as possible, but no earlier." |
Artistic integrity desirable but entrepreneurship integrity is not? | paniq: The flaw in this line of thought lies in the assumption that profit is the goal of both artist and entrepreneurial endeavours.But works of art and products serve society best, when profit is seen as a byproduct, sales as a means, and the goals are instead: raising the standards of living, education, expansion of... |
We Need a Bug Tracking Software Recommendation | cgherb911: 3. Simple to use, free, Anyone in your organization can use. |
Is it a good or bad time to launch during the holidays? | cgherb911: Completely depends on your market and who your targeting. All the movies come out during the holidays and during the summer. The latest trapper keeper comes out in August. I think your question is one only your team can answer themselves. |
We Need a Bug Tracking Software Recommendation | Kliment: I quite enjoy trac as it plays nicely with SVN and is fairly simple to set up (and free). I'd start with that and look to other things if it doesn't do what you want. |
Commenting on own link submissions | andyn: Your link seems to be dead. Perhaps it was flagged as spam? |
What is my website? | paraschopra: Oh god, in case I have missed something super obvious, where is the website? Are we supposed to hunt for it? Is it some kind of treasure hunt? |
What is my website? | sailormoon: For what it's worth - which is probably not much at all - I don't think negative pays off in the long term. Take it from a lifelong troller, now reformed (mostly).Some time ago there was some site which became semi-internet-famous for its scathing reviews of startups. I can't even remember its name, which m... |
If you didn't have to worry about healthcare, would you start a company? | kgrin: Since I live in Massachusetts, that's almost exactly what happened! (It wasn't/isn't free, but it was no more expensive than when I worked for BigCo). |
If you didn't have to worry about healthcare, would you start a company? | ryanelkins: I imagine most people on these forums are interested in starting a company regardless of healthcare issues. Personally, as I'm a little older and have a family to consider it's a little more of an issue but even then I feel like I can work around it and that it's not one of the major risks I consider with s... |
If you didn't have to worry about healthcare, would you start a company? | dabent: I just might have started one in the last year. I was between jobs over the Spring/Summer and developing pitches and prototypes.Without going into details, health insurance is a big issue for my family. I looked at my options (I'm in the US) and there really aren't any unless my employer has insurance. I hav... |
If you didn't have to worry about healthcare, would you start a company? | jacktasia: Yes. That said, I plan on doing so anyway...but that would certainly make it even easier and that much more attractive of an option. |
If you didn't have to worry about healthcare, would you start a company? | ams6110: If you didn't have to worry about buying food, would you start a company?If you didn't have to worry about paying the rent/mortgage would you start a company?If you didn't have to worry about ..... |
If you didn't have to worry about healthcare, would you start a company? | anamax: Please don't confuse healthcare with insurance.I went for over a decade without insurance yet I was never without healthcare. That used to be quite common, especially among folks in their 20s. Is that unthinkable for the current generation? Why?Plus, if you're talking about the US, free basic healthcare is a... |
If you didn't have to worry about healthcare, would you start a company? | matt1: Could someone elaborate on the issue? How much of a problem is it? |
If you didn't have to worry about healthcare, would you start a company? | michael_dorfman: If the cost of health insurance is the deciding factor in your decision to start a new company, you're better off not starting--you're seriously undercapitalized. |
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