Top all-time · #4565
Gayle Laakmann McDowell
Personal blog · gayle.com/blogcareerprogramming
Gayle Laakmann McDowell's personal blog at gayle.com covers career and programming. Since 2014, 17 different Hacker News readers have linked it 30 times, most often “Developer Interviews Are Broken, and You Can't Fix It”. The last post was in 2017, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (9) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Gayle Laakmann McDowell's blog for posts on developer interviews, hiring processes, and career advice, usually as background to threads on those topics.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 9 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
PROGRAMMER, FOUNDER, AUTHOR, CONSULTANT, SPEAKER
Most-linked posts?
- Developer Interviews Are Broken, and You Can't Fix It4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2015-06-11
- Companies shouldn't give candidates homework assignments3 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2015-06-23
- If you're interviewing with FizzBuzz, you're doing something wrong2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-09-30
What Hacker News says?
I did this once. After a take home quiz that took about an hour, I had a 6-7 hour "homework" problem. I did it, and sent it in. It took the company a month to get back to me, though I did stay in contact with the recruiter. The final answer, delivered by the recruiter, was "we've decided not to more forward at this time." No other feedback. I have no idea if anyone even looked at it - I never did speak to a dev at t…
Comment linking /blog/2013/09/18/companies-who-give-candidates-homework-assignments-knock-it-off
on “Three hundred programming interviews in thirty days”Submitted Companies shouldn't give candidates homework assignments as a story · 136 points
HN discussionI thought Gayle Laakman McDowell, who wrote "Cracking the Coding Interview", wrote a good article about the problems of take-home interviews. http://www.gayle.com/blog/2013/09/18/companies-who-give-cand... At the core of the problem is that this approach can be used to burn a lot of a candidate's time without an equivalent investment from the company. I've mentioned this before - I applied (maybe 5 years ago) to a c…
Comment linking /blog/2013/09/18/companies-who-give-candidates-homework-assignments-knock-it-off
on “Take-home interviews”Submitted The Problem with the FizzBuzz Problem as a story · 36 points
HN discussionOne would think so, obviously. Most people don't need to work with BSTs on a regular basis. However, once you start practicing, a funny thing happens: assuming you're doing it the right way, with the right mindset, you start to enjoy doing those problems. Your intuition hardens and a certain level of system-design clarity sets in by seeing similar problems across topics. In some ways, that's what I'm looking for as…
Comment linking /blog/2015/6/10/developer-interviews-are-broken-and-you-cant-fix-it
on “For anyone who has been turned down by 38 companies”Submitted Developer Interviews Are Broken, and You Can't Fix It as a story · 25 points
HN discussionYour frustration is justified. However, there is no flawless interview process. You could try and read this for more context: http://www.gayle.com/blog/2015/6/10/developer-interviews-are... Having been on the other side for quite a long time, I can assure you that despite best efforts by some very well meaning and smart people, this is the only process that has stuck around (and is still growing). That's because it'…
Comment linking /blog/2015/6/10/developer-interviews-are-broken-and-you-cant-fix-it
on “Amazon software engineer interview”Submitted Developer Interviews Are Broken, and You Can't Fix It as a story · 20 points
HN discussionI don't understand this either. There is an interesting blog post that suggests maybe some programmers get tripped up because they want to find a more clever way to do it: http://www.gayle.com/blog/2016/1/fizzbuzz-youre-doing-someth... It doesn't sound like this is the problem, though, in all the cases. It sounds like someone who majored in CS was unable to write this. Which seems inconceivable to me. And yeah, "inc…
Comment linking /blog/2016/1/fizzbuzz-youre-doing-something-wrong
on “America’s Need for Skilled Immigrants Isn’t Going Away”Submitted Developer Interviews Are Broken, and You Can't Fix It as a story · 3 points
HN discussionRelevant blog post: https://www.gayle.com/blog/2011/10/29/why-coders-shouldnt-jo... Something ironic I found when I was on my last job search (and applying to some YC startups) was that, despite startups often being critical of big tech, when describing their past experience, the founders (and their teams) never failed to ‘name drop’ the brand-name companies they’ve worked for. Additionally, I think the reason a lot…
Comment linking /blog/2011/10/29/why-coders-shouldnt-join-a-start-up-when-they-graduate
on “Do YC after you graduate: Early decision for students”Submitted Why Coders Shouldn't Join a Start-up When They Graduate as a story · 2 points
HN discussionFair enough. Keep in mind, the appeal of San Francisco before all of this happened wasn't that it is vibrant. Different cities can appeal for different reasons. San Francisco, when people spoke of it affectionately, was the cool grey city of love. It wasn't only that, or always as good as that, but that was the appeal. The appeal of San Francisco is that it was an urban place with a notably less frenetic vibe. I'd a…
Comment linking /blog/2015/11/if-you-want-an-a-career-in-technology-move-to-the-bay-area
on “This Is Silicon Valley”Submitted Developer interviews are broken, and you can't fix it (2015) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIt's a very difficult situation. I know we spend a lot of time discussing this on HN, but I'm glad we do, this really is one of the biggest issues facing our industry. We (software developers) essentially have to study for and pass a comprehensive whiteboard exam almost every time we apply for new job. Alternatively, we may have to spend up to a day or more on a "take-home" exam. I do think that Gayle Laakman McDowe…
Comment linking /blog/2013/09/18/companies-who-give-candidates-homework-assignments-knock-it-off
on “Startup Interviewing is Fucked”Submitted If you're interviewing with FizzBuzz, you're doing something wrong as a story · 2 points
HN discussionIf you read just that, okay fine. But if you're going to the front page of the website, you'd also see PROGRAMMER there. (Way to, by the way, cherry pick examples. Why not use this page? http://www.gayle.com/projects/ Oh, right, because it doesn't prove the straw man you'd built.) But that wasn't the example referenced. The example referenced about doing a talk on coding topics (data structures, algorithms, code) fo…
Comment linking /projects/
on “A hilariously sad tale of gender bias”Submitted Why Your Awesome, Creative Resume Isn't Working as a story · 1 points
HN discussionOk, something about this story seems a bit amiss. Gayle Laakmann is complaining about people thinking she is a recruiter, supposedly because she's a woman. Hmm, I'm curious - who is this person? How does she portray herself? Are there any other possible reasons people might view her as someone working in the general HR space? http://www.gayle.com/consulting/ I can't imagine why a consultant who helps with "Technical…
Comment linking /consulting/
on “A hilariously sad tale of gender bias”Submitted Why I Support Hachette Against Amazon – And Why You Should Too as a story · 1 points
HN discussionGayle Laakmann has offered coaching for acquisition interviews for a few years now. So apparently it is a thing. http://www.gayle.com/blog/2014/02/05/now-offering-acquisitio...
Comment linking /blog/2014/02/05/now-offering-acquisition-consultingcoaching-say-what
on “Ask HN: Which startup offer would you take?”You may want to consider these posts by Gayle Laakman McDowell (who write "Cracking the Coding Interview") on possible problems with take-home exams: http://www.gayle.com/blog/2013/09/18/companies-who-give-cand... From her blog post on general interviews and take-homes: http://www.gayle.com/blog/2015/6/10/developer-interviews-are... "Be fair to candidates. Balance the demand on their time with the utility you get fr…
Comment linking /blog/2015/6/10/developer-interviews-are-broken-and-you-cant-fix-it
on “Are women exiting engineering because men get the challenging assignments?”Do read this bit about take home tests, though. http://www.gayle.com/blog/2013/09/18/companies-who-give-cand... No real need for me to summarize it, it's all pretty well expressed in this blog post.
Comment linking /blog/2013/09/18/companies-who-give-candidates-homework-assignments-knock-it-off
on “Why you should refuse to participate in coding interviews”About that Amanda Blum article: http://www.gayle.com/blog/2013/03/24/digging-beneath-the-sur...
Comment linking /blog/2013/03/24/digging-beneath-the-surface-that-amanda-blum-article-on-adria-richards-is-not-what-it-seems
on “Online shaming: The return of mob morality [video]”I'd like to start by thanking Anna (the author of this post) for identifying and writing about something that I consider to be a very serious problem in tech. While I disagree about some of the details, I'm in complete agreement that hiring practices (among other things) are a serious in our industry, and I feel increasing frustration with an industry that constantly talks about a "shortage" of talent while tolerati…
Comment linking /blog/2013/09/18/companies-who-give-candidates-homework-assignments-knock-it-off
on “Tech Hiring: The Hunt for Highly Technical Superhumans”I refused to do a take-home interview exam for the first time a couple of months ago. I don't think a $100 gift certificate would have made much of a difference. The opportunity was a decent one but I've just had very bad experiences with take-homes in the past (spent a lot of time, didn't hear back for a month, got a one-sentence rejection from a recruiter, never talked to a developer). I might consider doing it la…
Comment linking /blog/2013/09/18/companies-who-give-candidates-homework-assignments-knock-it-off
on “Ask HN: What are the best practices for hiring software engineers?”1. https://www.gayle.com/career-advice 2. Book - "The tech resume inside out" 3. Youtube - "Create Your Resume for Google: Tips and Advice" 4. Science of job search (archived) - https://web.archive.org/web/20200513195903/https://talent.wo...
Comment linking /career-advice
on “Ask HN: Career Advice (Need Help)”There's a few perspectives here, not specifically for internships: http://www.gayle.com/blog/2013/09/18/companies-who-give-cand... I think the company should be very clear about the maximum amount of time you are expected to spend on tasks as part of the application process. There are some cases where companies do this kind of thing to get candidates to do unpaid work. From your perspective, perhaps the most useful…
Comment linking /blog/2013/09/18/companies-who-give-candidates-homework-assignments-knock-it-off
on “Ask HN: Is it normal to have to build an app for the interviewing process?”
