Naomi P.

"I don't like leetcode style interviews!" See I wasn't making it up! Kurtis Nusbaum tells us more about why engineers don't like leetcode and the types of interviews that lead to a more enjoyable and effective interviewing experience.

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Your developer interview process sucks 🪠: Here’s how to fix it? 1/3 👍 Are top-tier developers slipping through your hiring net? How many "perfect on paper" developers crumble during technical assessments? This is going to be part 1 of a 3-part series on refining your hiring process, specifically focusing on how to effectively qualify a candidate's technical ability. In the past few months, I’ve worked with clients to improve their interview process, and these are some of the things that I think about when designing the interview process. 🟥 Not all developers fit in the square hole – Tech test vs. Paired Programming As a software developer and a recruiter, I’ve been on both sides of the fence. I’ve taken technical tests, given them, and done my fair share of pair programming interviews. The more I reflect on it, the clearer it becomes: these approaches test very different things. Depending on what you're looking for in a candidate, one method might be way better suited than the other. 🤖 Technical Tests are a great tool for verifying a developer can fulfil the duties of their role. You find tech tests resonate best with developers who can work independently and churn out work quickly in isolation. These candidates often excel at solving problems in a controlled environment but are not necessarily the candidates you want in a highly communicative or client-facing environment. These people will often be your top developers, and you don’t want to miss out on them! 🤝 Paired Programming, on the other hand, allows you to assess how someone interacts in real-time. It’s about collaboration, listening, and adaptability. When you are pair programming with a candidate, you can quickly gauge their soft skills, how they approach problems, and how they deal with the unexpected. More importantly, you get to see how they learn and improve in the moment. Often, I find candidates who would excel in a technical test can falter in the paired programming stage due to social anxiety, lack of soft skills, or difficulty thinking out loud under pressure, even though they may be highly skilled technically. 🤔 Ultimately, you need to be more diligent when making your interview processes. Think about what the role entails. What test would best suit that individual? Cater the process to them so they don’t fall through the cracks. 🎯Are you looking for someone to be a production machine? Or a team player who you can work closely with? If you want a team player, you’re going to have a pair programming interview where you can collaborate, teach, and see their process. If you're facing tight deadlines and need a developer who will take ownership of their space - implementing a technical test can help you find that person. Tomorrow I’ll follow this up with some horror story technical tasks I’ve come across and how we can improve them to be 1. Relevant, 2. Fair in terms of time commitment, and 3. Truly reflective of the real challenges developers face on the job.

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If you've ever had any interest in the prospect of software development but don't know where to start, here's a blog written up on Skillsoft by the very talented Alec Olson detailing a little bit about the overall gig, the tools we use, and what makes us tick. It even features a couple of quotes from yours truly! Thanks again Alec for the opportunity to share some of my experiences. https://lnkd.in/gECfjYen #coding #development #softwaredevelopment #fullstack

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Feeling compelled to rant a bit. (All opinions my own.) Social media rarely communicates useful knowledge or reality. It is easy to wax poetic about programming. It is many orders of magnitude more difficult to actually do the work of studying and implementing a production-ready feature. Writing a post saying “Developers must be cautious to handle edge cases or their users will lose data! Follow for more software tips” takes seconds and floods platforms. ACTUALLY writing and testing implementations that do that take months or years, and will NEVER be posted on social media, because it is the product of salaried engineers that cost money to employ, and is thus intellectual property that cannot be shared under threat of lawsuit or possible criminal prosecution. That is reality. Full stop. Social media lies. Are LLMs a useful tool? Probably. You can find names of algorithms given a problem description in plain English, or get sample code to jump into a library quicker. That is crazy useful. They are good tools to ask questions and get a result (that you MUST follow up and VALIDATE FOR YOURSELF.) But they are NOT replacements for engineers. I'm tired of reading people lying that they are. Show me an LLM that won't hallucinate Swift Testing into Jest and JavaScript, like Claude did for me last week. Absurd. Show me an LLM capable of writing FreeBSD kernel code that understands the kernel’s lock state and properly manages locks without error, like my roommate did in college. How can you validate that output? This notion that LLMs will replace human beings is a marketing lie. It infantilizes the effort of careers like software engineering, treating years of hard graft, as well as academic + practical knowledge, and even our human capability to adapt, grow, and be creative upon tens and hundreds of thousands of years of our species' history - as though text search is worth more than all that. Those promoting ML replacing human beings, in any field, are clueless influencers and/or have financial interests. It misleads the general public about these technologies and their limitations, which is extremely dangerous. We need, frankly right now especially in the USA, to seriously course correct away from widespread lies and anti-intellectualism, to be more willing as a people to study, tackle, discuss reality, and to have more agency. Complex topics are not "smart people" things. When I hear people say this it deeply depresses me. It's telling yourself you can't/shouldn't learn, when that is the beautiful capability of us humans. We are in a golden age of many freely or cheaply accessible courses, textbooks, and papers. I wish we had systems that better promoted truths and encouraged diversifying oneself into knowledge outside one's specialization. There are too many lies, simplifications, and hallucinations being broadcast. It's a shame, and threatens our futures. #socialmedia #programming #softwareengineering #knowledge #technology

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Continuation..... *Insertion Anomaly: Imagine you have a list of your favorite songs, and you want to add a new song to the list, but you're forced to also write down details about the artist and the album. That's not necessary, right? An insertion anomaly is like being forced to provide more information than you want when you're adding something to your list. Updation Anomaly: Now, let's say you want to change the name of one of your favorite songs. But, oops, it's listed in a few different places because you added it more than once, and you have to remember to update it in all those places. An updation anomaly is like needing to fix the same thing in many spots when you want to change something. Deletion Anomaly: Lastly, picture this: you decide you don't like a song anymore and remove it from your list. But, surprise! Removing it also erases the name of the artist or the album, and you didn't want that to happen. A deletion anomaly is when deleting something causes other unintended things to disappear.

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If you want to be good at talking about your code in interviews...practice talking about code! I've spent another long day in front of the camera and in Davinci Resolve going over Leetcode questions and refining my explanation of the problems. After explaining this out loud 20 times and listening to it during editing I'm pretty sure I'd be able to do this in my sleep. Even if I never posted the video (although I will!) it's so worth the time to be able to speak well. And you're really forced to get a deeper understanding of a subject if you want to be able to teach it. The Feynman Technique is popular for good reason. I really encourage my fellow programmers to give making content a shot! And yes, maybe there are other videos on the subject out there already but no one will explain it exactly like you will. And sometimes that different perspective is just what someone needs for it to click for them. If you're not familiar with The Feynman Technique it's this: 1.) Write down the concept: Choose a topic to learn and write it down.  2.) Teach it: Explain the concept to someone else, either in writing, out loud, or to a real person. You can pretend you're teaching a child or someone who doesn't know the topic.  3.) Identify gaps: Pay attention to areas where your explanation is unclear or falters.  4.) Simplify: Rewrite complex sections in simpler terms. Use plain language and avoid jargon.  5.) Repeat: Review and repeat the steps to maximize recall and retention. 

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The open source team I'm a volunteer for at Couchers.org is looking for (volunteer) UI/UX Designers. Come join us, we're fun! Our Figma designs can't keep up with our engineers...halp? Maybe you're taking a sabbatical and want something on your resume for that time. Maybe you wanna see what it's like to work on a project that has nothing to do with stakeholders or investors, where we just do stuff our users want and we think is cool. Maybe you're passionate about traveling and old school couchsurfing vibes and wanna nerd out about it on a team with other travelers. Or maybe you just love designing stuff and are looking for some public portfolio pieces? Join our volunteer team! More info here: https://lnkd.in/g_PwevB9 On a side note, if you're a software engineer with some experience in Javascript or Python and looking for a fun project, we're always looking for more people too. (Please I need more people to review my PRs lol). #uxdesign #uxui #figma #design #opensource #volunteer

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🎄✨ Freelancing Reflections on Christmas Eve ✨🎄 As the year winds down, I’m reflecting on the trials, triumphs, and growth that come with freelancing. One of the biggest challenges (and learning opportunities) has been jumping into projects with existing codebases—analyzing code quickly, understanding another developer’s approach, and finding ways to improve or build upon it. It’s like opening a mysterious holiday gift: sometimes it’s exactly what you expected, other times... let’s just say it’s “unique.” 😅 But each project has taught me to adapt, communicate effectively, and sharpen my problem-solving skills. Freelancing is a journey of constant learning, and I’m grateful for every client, codebase, and challenge that has pushed me to grow this year. Here’s to a 2025 filled with more opportunities, growth, and clean code! Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 🎁💻 #Freelancing #SoftwareDevelopment #GrowthMindset #ChristmasEve

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🚀 Technical interview coming up? 🚀 Feeling nervous about your upcoming technical interview? Don’t worry, lots of folks feel the same way! Here’s a quick and easy way to kick off your prep: 🚀Get to Know What to Expect: Most technical interviews will test your coding and problem-solving skills. The hiring managers assess how you think and approach problems. 🚀 Start with a Great Resource: Not sure which questions to practice? Check out CoderPad interview questions—it’s packed with problems that cover everything you need to know. You’ll find endless questions to practice, so you can build your confidence step by step- https://lnkd.in/gHEq8jnS 🚀Practice in a Realistic Way: As you practice, explain your thought process out loud like you would in an interview. It’s not just about getting the right answer; it’s about showing how you approach solving it. Take it one step at a time, keep practicing, and remember—you’ve got this! 💪 #TechInterviewPrep #SoftwareEngineer #hiringmanagerinterview #jobinterview #interviewtips #technicalinterviewtips

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Some tips for people starting out as junior software engineers or software engineers in general: 1. Be willing to learn 2. Be okay with making mistakes 3. While you are still in your 20s work your hardest. - I love what CEO Codie Sanchez says: Codie Sanchez: They're Lying To You About How To Get Rich! How To Turn $0 Into $1M! 4. Be honest to your boss about your skill set - be okay with saying I don't know how to do this or I have never done this before but I will do some research and learn how to do it. Or do you have someone I can talk to to mentor me on this? 5. Code every day, 10 min or 1 hour. The quicker you can become comfortable programming the better. These small increments also add up over time. 6. The better you understand the concept the easier it will be to communicate it in a non-technical way 7. You can practice communication through your everyday life, does not only apply to technical stuff you can practice by teaching a younger sibling a new concept or a grandparent how to use their phone, etc. I have found that if done right these few things are worth their weight in gold.

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Need to request files from clients? It’s super easy with the new File Requests feature! Go check it out.

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Please repost to spread the word. IF YOU ARE HIRING A DEVELOPER RELATIONS PERSON TO REPORT TO MARKETING, YOU'RE MAKING A MISTAKE. My name is Scott, I'm a Community Mentor in the worldwide Developer Relations Discord, "Captains of Community". Here's the reality: Sorry about the caps but this is a real pain point and hiring managers need to know. Developer Advocates, Developer Program Engineers, and Developer Relations Engineers should never report to Marketing. This is because Marketing tries to twist DevRel people into salespeople, with KPIs centered on website activity, signups and conversions. This is NOT DevRel, it is Developer Marketing and that's a whole different discipline. DevRel (as opposed to Developer Marketing) has KPIs centering around making the developer happier with the product, and keeping a finger on the pulse of your users. It involves writing tutorials, answering questions in forums or Slack/Discord, giving talks and speaking to people at conferences in order to collect the pain points and wants of developers in relation to the product, and write reports on them. It involves trying to push the engineering team into doing what users want, sometime putting them at odds. It means being the face of the product and the person developers know they can turn to if they have a problem. It does not involve signups, conversions, or any other kind of marketing metric. In fact, all DevRel people need to report to either Engineering at a small/medium size company, or to a dedicated DevRel Director at a larger one. And no, that director should not report to a Marketing VP. Hopefully this will help you not make a bad hire, or waste someone else's time by hiring them for a job that isn't actually same as the job title you advertised. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and best of luck! Scott Stoll

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Conquering the Tabpocalypse: A New Hope (For Our Sanity)! Ever feel like your browser tabs are a warzone between work and personal life? Yeah, me too. Especially when you're juggling service-company stuff and client projects. Well, no more of that crap! I've spent a glorious week off work on a passion project, and I'm thrilled to announce... a "Shortcut Management Solution" (first version, but hey, it's a start, and it's already great!!) This baby's designed to be a life-saver for folks like us until the next big update is done incubating. 🍉 Here's the best part: your data stays "safely locked away" in your browser. No sneaky uploads or inter-browser gossip.  Just pure local-storage. 🍋 If you are already smart enough to use one browser for personal stuff, another for work, and a third for emailing and administrative stuff, heads up, you'll need to copy your data between browsers for now and for always as I made it a pledge not to take data out of the browser. You will then have to recreate your shortcuts on different browsers or if you're familiar with "LocalStorage", then I don't need to tell you how you could copy, MANUALLY, your data. Stay tuned - the first version drops in a few days, probably a week-end, as I have the obligation to focus on the awesome projects I do for a living during work-hours. Let's kiss that messy tab overload goodbye!  #productivityhacks #tabtaming #savethebrowser #comingsoon 🌶 PS: I do not own the background image, I used a random image as a background and it is not part of the shipped solution! 😜

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I've been working hard on a fresh UI update for my Nursing Quiz App on the Play Store! While revamping the app, I needed a way to create a good-looking feature graphic. Luckily, I found a great tool called Hotpot.ai that allows you to generate feature graphics and App Store images from customizable templates. Check them out: https://hotpot.ai I'm seeking internal testers to provide feedback on the new UI and features. If you're interested in helping out, please join the internal testers list here: https://lnkd.in/eTY8aVWE #appdevelopment #mobiledeveloper #appdesign #uidesign #indiedev #hotpotai #appstorelisting #screenshots #featuregraphic #betatester #usertesting #feedbackwanted

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Haha, this is hilarious! I know this is a funny meme, But but there’s something deeper to consider here… I’d compare AI tools like ChatGPT or Co-Pilot to a cheetah or tiger—not a turtle! AI tools are incredibly powerful and fast, but they’re not here to replace us. Instead, they’re our companions, helping us explore the unknown, learn faster, and solve problems more efficiently. The key is to use these tools wisely—to enhance our performance and optimize our time, not to become entirely dependent on them. After all, it’s our creativity, decision-making, and understanding that make the real difference. Let’s remember: AI is a helper, not a substitute for human potential 😊 . #AI #ChatGPT #OpenAI #artificialintelligence #chatgpt #prompts #aitools #aiproductivity #numerousai

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Early in my career I had a boss that said “ if I can’t develop you into replacing me, I have failed at being your senior “. This has stuck with me till date. We hear all the buzz words around being inclusive but people early in their careers and late in their career are at a disadvantage right now even for an opportunity to interview. When I graduated the economy was in the dumpster and I still have the 250 rejection emails from companies refusing to interview me. Let’s try and help the next generation of software engineers. #softwareengineering #jobs #interviews #mentoring

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One of the dangers in the job market today is the scam job offers. I've gotten two of them in past few weeks as I've been job hunting. This process has enough of its own challenges without these con artists trying to take advantage of people looking to better their situation. It's also a kick in the morale because after multiple rejections, you see an email that, at a glance, is finally giving you a shot. Then, upon further examination, it becomes clear that someone is trying to rip you off. Be careful out there, everyone! And if you get an email from [name].vistasjob.com, I'd recommend you just delete it! #scam #staysafe #itsajungleoutthere #jobsearch

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Great read about Promises! It starts with the most fundamental problem: JavaScript operates on a single thread, which means we can’t make it focus on just one thing without blocking that thread and freezing the entire browser tab. Understanding these limitations of JavaScript helps to make sense of some of the curious design decisions behind Promises.

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