Most inexperienced candidates...
One of my favorite pastimes, is following up on GitHub, with people from this joint, or others, that pique my interest.
There's a lot of really awesome stuff out there! You guys rock!
Of course, many of these folks, are...chronologically challenged, let's say. If you've already decided that you will only be hiring folks right out of school, then I can see the problem.
And...to answer the inevitable "You're likely an insufferable bastard" canard, that the conversation ends up at, after we've worked through the other things, I have a LinkedIn profile, packed with testimonials, from managers, former employees, and project partners.
Turns out, I'm actually a really decent human being, and play well with others.
I also worked for decades, for a Japanese company. You won't last long at a Japanese company, if you don't "team" well.
Most people have various interests and obligations. The number of people who after a day of work in software engineering go on to continue to do that in their free time instead of pursuing other interests is vanishingly small.
Additionally you have people who also just can’t do this, even if they wanted to, due to other obligations.
Obviously there are people who have a very narrow set of interests and leave their office to go to a hacker space but that is such an absurdly small group that it’s ridiculous to even consider them in hiring.
In fact you probably want to avoid having an entire team of people like this in favor of a more diverse group of people.
It is, however, an advantage that some folks have, and my suggestion is that we should not be required to deliberately hobble ourselves, just because everyone does not have the same advantage.
Of course, a hiring corporation has every right to ignore things like this, and they likely won’t go out of business, as a result. They, may, however, miss talent that could take their business to “the next level,” and risk hiring folks that have become expert at “gaming the system,” and presenting style, over substance.
It has to be a good CRUD kitchen recipe app if you want to show it off.
Bad - small coding project will show that candidate is a bad coder, even if the code works.
Bad - cover letter will show that candidate has bad grammar, even if person put in the effort.
Good - small coding project will show that candidate can get anything done.
Good - cover letter will show that candidate is willing to put extra effort to get the job.
