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amichail
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an idea for finding a development job
« on: Mar 18th, 2006, 11:09pm » |
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Hi,
It seems to me that people looking for development positions could try broadcasting their open source development sessions live on the net.
In this way, potential employers can get a very close look at how good people are (e.g., how quickly they think, how error-prone they are, how their design emerges, etc.). Although you can get some of this by looking at svn data, a live session would be better.
Technically, the broadcast would consist of something like a view-only vnc.
If you are looking for a developer, you would search across all live sessions for someone with potentially relevant expertise. Then you could watch them for hours as they code to see if they are worth interviewing.
Of course, such a technology can have other uses, particularly with a chat feature. For example, people could learn from you, give you coding advice or advertise potentially relevant libraries.
Amir
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| « Last Edit: Mar 18th, 2006, 11:11pm by amichail » |
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towr
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Re: an idea for finding a development job
« Reply #1 on: Mar 20th, 2006, 2:37am » |
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I have a feeling watching people code would be about as interesting and usefull as watching grass grow. At least as far as actually programming a software system goes.
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amichail
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Re: an idea for finding a development job
« Reply #2 on: Mar 20th, 2006, 2:45am » |
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on Mar 20th, 2006, 2:37am, towr wrote:| I have a feeling watching people code would be about as interesting and usefull as watching grass grow. At least as far as actually programming a software system goes. |
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If you are involved in a startup with limited funding, then there is a great incentive to hire the right people. And if watching them code for weeks will help, then I suspect people will do it.
Even a large company like Microsoft or Google can save quite a lot of money on flying people for interviews if they eliminate most candidates by watching them code for weeks.
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| « Last Edit: Mar 20th, 2006, 2:45am by amichail » |
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towr
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Re: an idea for finding a development job
« Reply #3 on: Mar 20th, 2006, 3:07am » |
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You could get better, cheaper results, by just interviewing them online first. And perhaps have them program a few things you devise yourself to check for certain skills.
Watching people code for weeks on some random program just doesn't seem very efficient or worthwhile to me.
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amichail
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Re: an idea for finding a development job
« Reply #4 on: Mar 20th, 2006, 3:43am » |
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on Mar 20th, 2006, 3:07am, towr wrote:You could get better, cheaper results, by just interviewing them online first. And perhaps have them program a few things you devise yourself to check for certain skills.
Watching people code for weeks on some random program just doesn't seem very efficient or worthwhile to me. |
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I think you would learn more from watching them work on a 10,000 line program of their choosing.
Real software development is different from toy programs.
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amichail
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Re: an idea for finding a development job
« Reply #5 on: Mar 20th, 2006, 3:46am » |
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Also, this approach reverses the interviewing process.
People looking for development jobs would no longer need to apply to any particular company.
If they are good in their live coding, interested companies will contact them.
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towr
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Re: an idea for finding a development job
« Reply #6 on: Mar 20th, 2006, 4:11am » |
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on Mar 20th, 2006, 3:43am, amichail wrote:| I think you would learn more from watching them work on a 10,000 line program of their choosing. |
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I doubt it. Just reading a small program of someone else's code is hard enough, let alone 10,000 lines.
Not to mention the man-hours it would cost, compounded by the thousands of people you can choose from (who might very well not all be interested to work for you anyway).
I'm just not buying into this..
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amichail
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Re: an idea for finding a development job
« Reply #7 on: Mar 20th, 2006, 4:20am » |
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on Mar 20th, 2006, 4:11am, towr wrote:
I doubt it. Just reading a small program of someone else's code is hard enough, let alone 10,000 lines.
Not to mention the man-hours it would cost, compounded by the thousands of people you can choose from (who might very well not all be interested to work for you anyway).
I'm just not buying into this.. |
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I guess I could try it and see. I could probably build a prototype quickly by combining a tweaked vnc with chat and a search engine.
I suspect that you would learn a lot about how someone works by watching them for weeks. And ultimately, how they work on a day to day basis is what's important when you hire them.
Moreover, one could have a search engine that suggests people to watch based on the domain of the project, the sort of crowd that they attract in live coding sessions, and various other factors.
The crowd btw need not consist only of potential employers, but it could include people wanting to learn (e.g., they might want to watch someone build a parser), people who may want you to join an open source project, people who wish to advertise libraries, tools, etc that might be helpful to you based on what you are doing, etc.
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| « Last Edit: Mar 20th, 2006, 4:22am by amichail » |
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towr
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Re: an idea for finding a development job
« Reply #8 on: Mar 20th, 2006, 4:39am » |
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Quote:| people who wish to advertise libraries, tools, etc |
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Be sure to avoid spamming.
And trolls.
Because that will inevitably become a problem.
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| « Last Edit: Mar 20th, 2006, 4:40am by towr » |
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amichail
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Re: an idea for finding a development job
« Reply #9 on: Mar 25th, 2006, 3:35pm » |
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Here's a preliminary prototype:
http://vnccasts.com/
http://groups.google.com/group/VNCCasts
You can use the standard (but not "tight") vnc viewer to view VNCCasts: just click on "view" and leave the password empty.
Feel free to provide more compelling content! I fully intend this to become something like "VNC TV".
Maybe some people here might give us live puzzle solving demonstrations, or even a live feed of what they do on this site would be interesting.
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amichail
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Re: an idea for finding a development job
« Reply #10 on: Apr 1st, 2006, 4:28pm » |
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Now that I have a prototype running, the next step is to provide some compelling live broadcasts that people would want to watch.
The motivation given initially in this thread is only one possible use of broadcasting your desktop live. I've put some other ideas as sample VNCCasts @ http://vnccasts.com.
But I suspect that, at least initially, the sorts of broadcasts that would attract viewers would be things like someone creating computer art, playing a game, or giving a tutorial.
I plan to broadcast my computer usage live. The broadcast would likely involve me trying to find material on the web to put in my blog. Perhaps readers of my blog would find this interesting and could influence what I find/post through chat.
In any case, do you have ideas for what might make compelling viewing?
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