Mason  🏃‍♂️ ✂️

A few people have mentioned we should talk about Lambda School's weaknesses and struggles. I think that's wise. The biggest one we've had, by far, is students' inability (or unwillingness) to search for jobs after graduation. Job hunting is hard and discouraging (1/n)

Tech interviews are just actually scary Nobody really gets to practice for interviews; practicing the constituent skills isn't the same thing Tech interviews are just actually scary Rejection sensitivity is pernicious Tech interviews are just actually scary

Tech interviews (as generally practiced) are an emergent culture of abuse which by happenstance, memetic evolution, malfeasance, or all three happens lets the company play Bad Cop interview process Good Cop offer of employment.

Serious Q: why don't these companies just throw employment hackathons & learn to observe the talent in its natural habitat? The tech interviews I've had seem designed to actually torture nerds

It is not obvious for me that a hackathon is actually a good work sample test for professional software development. Reasons orgs would not do it: inertia, high focus cost of expensive employees, scheduling pain, pushback from desirable candidates, Schelling point issues.

That's not obvious to me, either. But it is pretty obviously better than the typical tech interview? I (seem to) interview more effectively than many friends of mine with much stronger technical skills & vastly better portfolios, and this seems dumb