Ask HN: Who is hiring? (May 2018)

New York Stock Exchange | https://www.nyse.com | New York, NY | Senior web developer | ONSITE | Full-time

We are looking for quick learners who enjoy working with modern software development tools in the financial and capital markets space.

Knowledge of specific frameworks or libraries is less important than a broad knowledge of software development practices, and an ability to learn.

At the NYSE, we are building customer-facing web applications with tons of referential data and many downstream systems.

Must haves:

1. Significant experience developing web applications and web sites.

2. Very solid experience with JavaScript frameworks. Particularly, React.

3. Relational database experience.

4. An understanding of automated testing and when it’s an asset and when it’s a liability.

5. Clear, concise coding skills. Your code is more often described as "clean and elegant" than "clever."

6. A healthy amount of patience for firewall/infrastructure navigation. We use modern stacks and have access to most tools, but still operate in a regulated environment.

Qualifications / Requirements: https://gist.github.com/silviogutierrez/fad88f1a917743ea5f23...

Shibboleths: https://gist.github.com/silviogutierrez/38996b3421ff946d6eb0...

Interested? Email me at silvio.gutierrez@nyse.com. Please put [Hacker News] in the subject line, with the brackets. Maybe take a look at the shibboleths in the link above and try answering a few.

Your "shibboleths" come off as somewhat smug and self-congratulatory, IMHO.

E.g.: > You think comments are a last resort for documenting an algorithm.

Right, would like to see you implement tf-idf weights in a vector-space model without any comments. Super helpful for devs who come in after you.

> You understand the illusion of complexity and why simplicity is always better.

Who's pro-complexity? What dev sits around and says, "Wow, this is too easy to understand, I need to make it more confusing"? Complexity is a result of many factors but intent is typically not one of them.

> You can and have extracted declarative implementations out of imperative code. You know when it’s worth it and when it’s not.

Speaking as a hiring manager I'm not sure I can think of a less applicable signal as to whether or not a candidate would be a good hire than something this specific.

What this list really should be titled is, "A List of Things I Know and Am Proud of" not potential signals for good hires.

Not saying this to cut you down, just to let you know it's written in a tone that's over-specific and (to the average reader) arrogant. If I may I suggest rewriting it sound more inclusive, exciting and positive instead of "I'm so great because I know these things and you should too."

Just my two cents.

I agree. I read through this and, despite being able to speak to most of the points, my first thought was "this is not a group of people I want to work with."

Thanks for the feedback! I'm surprised, for previous rounds, the shibboleths were cited in our submissions as one of their favorite parts. I guess tastes vary. We had two amazing hires off these posts. But that's anecdata.

Point by point:

Comments: sure, that's an excellent case for a comment. I meant more for a simple loop over items, etc. In those cases, if you use clear variable names and idiomatic syntax, it'll work. But for vector-space models? Go all out...

Pro-complexity: this is "pro-complexity" in my opinion: https://engineering.hellofresh.com/front-end-microservices-a... . HN seemed to agree: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15566339

Declarative: fair enough. It's been instrumental in our current project, so it's just something we look for. Perhaps too heavily, based on this feedback.

Overall feedback: that's great to know, I can look at making them more inclusive. Many of these are not at all my accomplishments but things we've collectively picked up from HN in general. Note the self-deprecating humor.

Again, thanks!