|
So, I'm working as an independent contractor doing mostly backend and middleware, and I finally decide to try to pick up some more work outside my current client; business is slow with my current customers, and it's probably a good time to start poking around...
Tonight, I came across a promising item that seems to be a good fit: Technologies I'm familiar with, remote work, the whole shebang. The "Apply Now" link takes me to the company's application process, and I start going through the usual 3-5 pages of who/what/when/why...
...and then I get to the last text area to be filled: "Please write a 40-60 word poem about your current or a recent position." Huh?
I can only guess that these types of tests are supposed to do something like screen for creativity, or frighten off the less-than-serious applicant. Has anyone else come across this kind of stuff--or something weirder?
Just to complete the story, I decide to forge ahead; if they want me to sum up my life as a coder in 40-60 words, who am I to question the wisdom and might of HR?
Behold, my Miltonian masterpiece!
Lo! The worlds of knowledge that dance mind,
Building bridges of code to speak both kind.
Arrows of packets, racing through the night,
Sysadmins finally sleep peaceful at night.
Look to the Voids, darkness still reigns,
A wish to forge bonds! Break open chains.
Blacksmith! Bytesmith! Job never done,
Still we fight on, our day in the sun.
Burma shave.
vuolsi così colà dove si puote
ciò che si vuole, e più non dimandare
--The answer to Minos and any question of "Why are we doing it this way?"
|
|
|
|
|
Sounds like it's meant to weed out non-English-speaking applicants. 
There once was a lowly programmer
Who often was heard to stammer
"Oh, why won't they learn
when I say 'hit RETURN'
I mean with a thumb, not a hammer!"
|
|
|
|
|
PIEBALDconsult wrote: Sounds like it's meant to weed out non-English-speaking applicants
Seems to work.
Peter Wasser
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell
|
|
|
|
|
There once was a man from Nantucket
whose dic - err, maybe not on a job interview 
Once you lose your pride the rest is easy.
In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you. – Buddha
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
|
|
|
|
|
that was going to read "diction", right?
|
|
|
|
|
G-Tek wrote: that was going to read "diction", right?
Yeah, that's right diction. It was going to read diction. 
Once you lose your pride the rest is easy.
In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you. – Buddha
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
|
|
|
|
|
Maybe someone was a poetry major in college and now works in human resources.
I wonder if the higher-ups at the company know that this individual could be alienating potential talent.
Perhaps you should send a copy of the ridiculous request to them.
|
|
|
|
|
Considering how difficult it is to separate engineering wheat from chaff, this method is probably as valid as any other. And as recent studies show coding is closer related to language skills than maths, it might actually be more accurate 
|
|
|
|
|
Ri_ wrote: recent studies show coding is closer related to language skills than maths,
Interesting idea. That makes me appreciate my stint as a technical writer back when I was an intern even more.
Software Zen: delete this;
|
|
|
|
|
There is a relationship between being a musician and a good developer.
There is none, as far as I know, between being a poet and a good developer.
Just some wank in HR trying to be creative.
|
|
|
|
|
may be the HR person read this quote somewhere..
"programs are written by developer and sung by system" 
|
|
|
|
|
I laughed out loud at this! Reminds me of a sci-fi book I read long ago, "The Ship who Sang"
|
|
|
|
|
Ri_ wrote: recent studies show coding is closer related to language skills than maths
I just can't let this one pass. That is complete and utter garbage. I couldn't learn a foreign language to save my life, but I can certainly design and write software.
In college, I had to take each semester of language twice because I couldn't pass it the first time, one I had to take four times. I spent three times as much time studying for each of those classes, as the hardest of my computer classes. I just barely managed to pull D's in my language classes though all that hard work. In contrast, the computer classes were easy, and required practically no studying for the straight A's I got on them. If there's a brain that's not wired for human languages, its mine.. which if the conclusions of that study were actually correct, would mean that I couldn't possibly write software.
Ri_ wrote: Considering how difficult it is to separate engineering wheat from chaff
That poetry requirement is obviously just a way for the HR staff to reduce the number of applicants that they have to filter through. In other words, they've found they are unequipped to filter applicants for their technical merits, so they threw something in that will reduce the number of applications to a level they find more manageable. Besides, they probably get to have a good laugh at the attempts of poetry they get from applicants.
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
|
|
|
|
|
My experience has been the opposite. I studied two musical instruments and two foreign languages at school, and was routinely awarded poetry prizes, but left Maths behind very early on (bad teachers  ).
For me the thing with music is the structure, the patterns, the chord progression, melody development etc. In language it is the vocabulary, the specific meaning of a word and the different nuances in meaning between two similar words, finding the right word for precise expression (e.g. sad vs melancholy or humiliated vs embarrassed).
Those are also the two aspects of programming I enjoy - structuring the app and coding it in an effective way. The satisfaction of solving a difficult problem well and producing software that performs as advertised - best feeling in the world. It's like you beat yourself every time you write better code 
As to technical merits - I have no diplomas or degrees, so by your estimation I shouldn't even get a foot in the door, even though I'm a competent coder. Very generous of you 
|
|
|
|
|
My wife is taking more graduate classes in education, and she says this is the new trend, esp. in "hip" companies.
Oh, well, guess no one there will be old enough to get the "Burma shave" reference...
vuolsi così colà dove si puote
ciò che si vuole, e più non dimandare
--The answer to Minos and any question of "Why are we doing it this way?"
|
|
|
|
|
I had it only once...They asked me to write a two page story in my native language...Not a single person in the entire company could read or understand Hungarian...This was a real fun...
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
|
|
|
|
|
Volt, valóban, mert nem olvastam magyar vagy a történet nem a magyar?
If that doesn't mean anything, feel free to blame Google Translate. 
You have just been Sharapova'd.
|
|
|
|
|
It can be fun ti play with Translator...Like the game we had when you whisper a sentence the next to you in a circle and wait it to come back on the other side. As you can only once to whisper the final sentence rarely resembles the original, which cause much fun...
It was, indeed, because I have not read the story or not the Hungarian Hungarian?
(I doubt that was the original sentence )
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter wrote: Like the game we had when you whisper a sentence the next to you in a circle and wait it to come back on the other side. As you can only once to whisper the final sentence rarely resembles the original, which cause much fun...
Which in English is named "Chinese whispers" 
|
|
|
|
|
I'd have made a Haiku:
New pair of glasses,
Bug never passes,
See sharp ?
|
|
|
|
|
Visually Best (VB).
TOMZ_KV
|
|
|
|
|
I love this but in the spirit of proper haiku[^] I submit:
Client demo fails.
Despite new pair of glasses
you cannot see sharp.
|
|
|
|
|
This would be my poem:
Sorry, but I only work for bona fide companies.
Don'tcha just love the way it synchopates in the third stanza?
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
|
|
|
|
|
a 40-60 word poem about your current or a recent position.
Ready for test.
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
