Skip to main content

Hiring

2024


Believe It or Not, Reality Is Real Life

·5 mins

In the olden days, we had résumés, and today, well, some of us still have résumés (or curriculum vitaes, if you prefer). But now, we also have social media profiles, which–to some folks–are the new résumés. They are the new first impression for the chronically online, the new first point of contact, the new first everything. And in the context of getting a job, these profiles and our Internet behavioural breadcrumbs are the new first thing that can get you hired or not hired. Let’s hope those recruiters don’t find your Reddit profile.

2023


The 10x Engineer Is a Myth: It's More Like 100x

·10 mins

People love to argue about the so-called “10x engineer”, which in the techie world refers to a computer person who produces 10x as much value as the average computer person (when discussing people who write software and their corresponding output).

I want to correct something. The 10x engineer is a misnomer because it actually should be “The 100x Engineer”. Not only is the 100x engineer quite real, but most people wildly underestimate the value provided by the very best talent. One reason for this is that the human brain is very bad at understanding probabilities, distribution, compounding returns, and exponential growth.

2022


Nobody Wants to Hire Anymore

·6 mins

The word on the street is there’s a “labour shortage”. If we look at the data, however, it tells a different story. I’ve heard theories about people retiring, or too many COVID excess deaths, or people being flush with cash because the government gave everyone a coulpe thousand bucks (which is about one month’s rent), but looking at the data I’m not seeing numbers that reflect most of those theories.

The SEX Theorem of Hiring

·5 mins

Software engineers are likely familiar with the CAP theorem, something coined by Eric Brewer. In short: the CAP theorem posits that distributed databases can have at most 2 of 3 attributes where a database is either consistent, available, or fault tolerant.

In other words, you can have a DB that is consistent and highly available, but not fault tolerant. Or, you can have a DB that’s fault tolerant and highly available, but isn’t always consistent (especially in the event of failure).