57
janonb
8y

My first dev job. Me and another guy get hired at the same time. He will be the lead dev, and I’ll be the junior dev on a long term project. Project gets delayed (and eventually canceled, but that’s a different story), so the lead dev decides to give me programming challenges to test my skill level. I successfully complete the challenges, but they aren’t up to his standards. Belittles me in front of our manager. Afterwards I ask him to show me how he would have done it. The dude can barely type let alone show me the way it should be done. I say nothing to the manager.

A few weeks pass, it’s clear the project we were hired for is canceled, so we are given other work. They task the lead dev with porting the company website to Wordpress so non-devs can alter content. They chose Wordpress mainly because the lead dev said he is familiar with it. Two weeks later, no progress has been made. They ask me if I can do it, and I do it in 2 days including additional functionality that was requested. Manager asks me why I thought lead dev couldn’t do what I did. I said, “I don’t think lead dev knows what the fuck he is doing. I don’t think he knows how to program.” Manager says, “Huh.”

Several months later lead dev is still there, but has yet to work on any projects with any success. They finally let him go.

Glad to finally get that off my chest.

Comments
  • 6
    @uddinstock Not sure what was up with him really. He was a consummate bullshitter for sure which is how he managed to hang on for so long. He knew all the lingo and buzzwords, but had no real skills that I could discern.
  • 1
    How did he get the job in the first place?
  • 4
    Unfortunately many people can interview much better this they Candi the job and many managers are slow to accept they have made an error when hiring.

    The best teams/companies I have worked in have had a sit down/pairing coding test - really does eliminate this type of problem!
  • 2
    People like him must be blacklisted for 1 year for getting any job in this field.
  • 1
    I can do much job but suck at the technical interviews because not very good at lingo and I guess I start doubting myself when people are watching .. and waiting.. :/
  • 0
    @davidcondrey - I guess mileage may vary :/

    In my experience the approach says much about the hiring company, a good test / pairing exercise should bring out strengths from the candidate and highlight areas needing support (everyone has something to learn/improve) - without being too stressful.

    Maybe too many interviewers get onto the extreme end of interviewing - my current organisation is doing this well (in my opinion). I'd certainly rant about an interview that was designed to stress or cause people to doubt themselves!
Add Comment