This example of what not to do in a job interview uses common interview questions and english conversation that is basic enough for. One of the first questions i ask any software developer who i am interviewing is what they do to. Youre reading joel on software, stuffed with years and years of completely raving mad articles about software development, managing software teams. The joel test for programmers the simple programmer test a while backthe year 2000 to be exact joel spolsky wrote a blog post entitled. Its important to remember, joel s post was written in an era when the. The joel test for programmers the simple programmer test. The only defense i can see runs along the lines of i tried, but did not have the authority.
Heads stay in consideration, tails get a rejection letter. That eliminates 90% of the senior software engineers who make it far enough to interview with me. Joel spolsky interview ceo of stack overflow and joel on. Watch joel spolsky ceo of stack overflow talk about starting and running stack and. With the success of joel on software, there has been a strong demand for additional gems and advice, and this book is the answer to those requests. If your billing software occasionally forgets to send a bill, youll get fired.
He graduated from yale university, and has worked as a programmer and manager at. Keep asking yourself which is worse that we grow into a big, lousy software company with lots of coconuts, or that we stay small but high quality. Making all posts independent makes it easy to pick up the book every now and then, read one, and move on. Containing a collection of allnew articles from the original, more joel on software has even more of an edge than the original, and the tips for running a business or managing people have far. While you are conducting the interview, dont worry that if you reject a lot of people, fog creek wont be able to find anyone to hire. And on diverse and occasionally related matters that will prove of interest to. Joel spolsky is the founder of fog creek software, a small software company in new york city. I really enjoyed reading this book, even if joel was kind of obsessed with microsoft and netscape. The first module covers this in depth, from recruiting to internships to the interview process.
Recruiting the top 1 percent joel spolsky fog creek. The second part of the phone screen is the technical problem. Joel on software covers every conceivable aspect of software programmingfrom the best way to write code, to the best way to design an office in which to write code. For example, the venerable joel on software wrote about them in his guerrilla guide to interviewing, and jeff atwood wrote about them in getting the interview phone screen. Many software engineers and developers use this test for evaluating a company to determine if a company is a good company to work for. To correct the problem, microsoft universally adopted something called a zero defects. He has written five books for developers and, in the year 2000, started joel on software, a cleanly written and often funny blog. Joel spolsky on how the developer role has changed. The guerrilla guide to interviewing joel on software. Theres a roundtable article on this topic at artima developer with some good ideas from a group of well known developers explore an area of expertise. Of course, its important to seek out good candidates.
What a real web developer interview is like front end. Further thoughts on diverse and occasionally related matters that will prove of interest to software developers, designers. Do new candidates write code during their interview. Youre reading joel on software, stuffed with years and years of completely raving mad articles about software development, managing software teams, designing user interfaces, running successful software companies, and rubber duckies. Not surprising, given that his company only develops for windows, and that mr. Youre reading joel on software, stuffed with years and years of completely raving mad articles about software development. I would never ask any problem anywhere this complex in an interview.
There are maybe 40 posts and the book is about 350 pages. Each month, more than 40 million professional and aspiring programmers visit stack overflow to ask and answer questions and find better jobs. I wrote about what i enjoyed from interviewing at spotify, and now i often get friendly emails from strangers asking for tips on how they should prepare for an upcoming software engineer interview. But youre right, codeshops fail the joel test because people in the shops let it fail. Another problem is that if you have any kind of selective hiring. Pick problems that have more than one solution including an easy brain dead inefficient solution. Well, it has made me thinking that getting to work for billy boy is a bit tough. When youre starting out as a technical blogger, youll inevitably stumble across joel on software. Jeff atwood leveraged joel on software s popularity to create a. Joel spolsky is the cofounder and ceo of fog creek software in new york city and the host of the joel on software blog at. The joel tests equivalent for measuring a programmer software. Joel recently posted an update questioning the commonly held belief that were only hiring the top 0. In this talk full of humor, joel spolsky captivates and entertains the audience by talking about how how he built and grew stack overflow, and more broadly on the software industry today. Things you should never do, part i joel on software.
He was a program manager on the microsoft excel team between 1991 and 1994. By the time of the inperson interview, theres such a high probability that were. Theoretically, this was supposed to solve the mythical manmonth problem. Joel spolsky is a globally recognized expert on the software development process. Avram joel spolsky born 1965 is a software engineer and writer. Find books like joel on software from the worlds largest community of readers.
Joel on software is a collection of joels blog posts. Tips for interviewing at a large tech company medium. The current version of this article is the guerrilla guide to interviewing, version 3. Last week, joel joel on software spolsky wrote an article arguing that theres not much of a business case for developing mac software. If your wireless driver locks up the os, youre going to be seriously pissed. Interview whiteboard coding tests are worthless seek nuance. Goodreads members who liked joel on software also liked. Evidently writing about the fizzbuzz problem on a programming blog results in a nighirresistible urge to code up a solution. Theyve been written about plenty, and the conventional wisdom is theyre very useful. Spolsky formerly worked for microsoft developing windows software. He later founded fog creek software in 2000 and launched the joel on. This forum was set up and moderated by joel spolsky, probably back in the 1990s. Joel spolskys concise guide to finding the best technical talent at. Luckily for us, a software developer named joel spolsky made our.
The joel test updated for programmers simple programmer. Spolsky is uniquely positioned to watch the world of programming grow. Interview questions i was wondering what types of interview questions specifically coding questions people use for visual basic programmers or even java programmers. Any programmer that hasnt touched or heard of the items on the joel test is simply disconnected and needs to get a clue. Online communities dont have to be hatefilled cesspools and this guy proved it. These problems can be solved, one at a time, by carefully moving code, refactoring, changing interfaces. If joel s bug tracking software crashes too often or loses info, id replace it with something else. Most of them are written for the interviewee, but are still loaded with good info that you can use to improve your hiring process. My personal list of interview questions originates from my first job at. And on diverse and occasionally related matters that will prove of interest to software developers, designers, and managers, and to those who, whether by good fortune or ill luck, work with them in some capacity at.
Keep asking yourself which is worse that we grow into a big, lousy software company. Before moving on to a fullfledged inperson interview, we usually use a phone. You might as well take your stack of apps, flip a coin on each one. Joel spolsky on stack overflow, inclusion, and how he broke it recruiting. Hes been blogging since the year 2000, when computers were handcarved of wood and the internet transmitted data via carrier pigeon. Joel has an opinion on everything and a fairly strong one.
Its pretty clear to me that just because youre hiring the top 0. He is the author of joel on software, a blog on software development, and the creator of the project management software trello. And on diverse and occasionally related matters that will prove of interest to software developers, designers, and managers, and to those who, whether by good fortune or ill luck, work. All programmers, all people who want to enhance their knowledge of programmers, and all who are trying to manage programmers will surely relate to joel s musings. At the heart of joel s philosophy is hiring smart people who get things done. But i have an interview with microsoft coming up and thought joels website would be useful. Gregg tavares 26 design problems in physical products software enthusiast 19 private offices, just say no. If the atm network or air traffic control system crash, youve got serious problems. The 2020 guide to the joel test for programming hubspot blog. It should be doable in 2530 minutes by your best guy.
Joel spolsky stack exchange interview business insider. For my day job, im the cofounder and ceo of stack overflow, the largest online community for programmers to learn, share their knowledge, and level up. Joel spolsky is the ceo and founder of stack overflow, the premiere question and answer site about computer programming. There are quite a few books about technical interviews. Software that wasnt built from a spec usually winds up badly designed and the schedule gets out of control. Joel spolsky of stack overflow on the advice he would give himself if he could go back in time duration. I have compiled a list of 12 books, which you can find at the bottom of this page, but first, a. I ask joel on software s fizzbuzz or something similar on a white board.
Coding tests are a fact of life when you interview for a developer job. I like the little stories about problems he faces building his own company and learning about mistakes that compromise a business not software bugs, but strategy bugs. The comments here, on digg, and on reddit nearly a thousand in total are filled with hastily coded solutions to fizzbuzz. How do you recognize talented software developers in a 30 minute interview. Joel spolsky on stack overflow, inclusion, and how he broke it. And on diverse and occasionally related matters that will prove of interest to software developers, designers, and managers, and to those who, whether by good fortune or ill luck, work with them in some capacity spolsky, joel on. On guerrillas and microsoft interviews i am not gonna ask a what will they ask me.