I’m in a fairly young team which was set up half a year ago. Hiring more and more engineers is my first priority. I tried very hard to filter candidates, giving them code exams and stressful technical interviews, doing background and reference checks, but ultimately few of them can pass the final round in front of my boss.
My boss, let’s call him A, is a VP of engineering. He’s a hardcore kernel engineer since the SGI era.He could be good friend with you in normal times but when he’s serious to something, he’ll be very harsh - if unfortunately you’re not getting to the point when talking to him, he will stop you immediately. To many Chinese engineers, having an interview with a foreigner is scary, not to mention a foreigner with the title of VP.
Several days ago we got a relatively good candidate — he did really good in code exam, and his problem solving skills are good. Although not looks very smart and shiny, I could smell that this guy is a hard-working, easy-going teammate.
But A didn’t think he’s qualified. After a ten-minute interview, he rushed directly to the meeting room where we were doing staff meeting, and stopped us:
“Please give me 5 minute.”
He then started talking about how bad this guy was doing when he gave him an elementary code interview. You could imagine how embarrass I was at the moment — I recommended this guy to A with the comment that he’s a good coder.
After pouring his dissatisfaction, he stared at me, waiting for my explanation.
“He’s doing good in the code exam - I’ll share the exam link to you and explain line by line later in your office.”
After the staff meeting I appeared in A’s office. I showed him the code the candidate wrote. Starring at the screen for a moment, he roared:
“What is this piece of shit?”
The code he pointed is:
int i;
However this variable is not used throughout the function. I neglected this. What I concentrated when reviewing his code is the algorithm, the result, but not the details.
Deathly stillness. I felt suffocated.
Then he pointed at another code:
“No comments. Not good basic C. Inconsistent coding style. What is this fucking code? This guy should go back to college and retake computer science 101.”
Not even give me a chance to comment, he moved on:
“I like this topic. It is ambiguous. That means the candidate should give their own judgement on the preconditions. Apparently this guy is not good in this part. If he gave his preconditions and they were wrong, I can correct him. But he has no sense about it.”
“What the hell is this? It’s a shame to write such kind of code!”
…
At last he stopped.
I almost didn’t know what to say. Spending several minutes plucking up my courage, I tried to explain:
“He’s one of the best candidates who worked on this exam. We interviewed so many candidates recently and only got this one. All the code is logically right and he did good error handling…”
I was then stopped by the sharp criticism:
“I don’t care how many you interviewed. I don’t care the result of the code. What the hell if a programmer can not get the code right! I don’t need someone who can only write correct code — I assume anyone who took computer science 101 could write correct code. What I need is someone who can write clean, simple, beautiful code! What I need is someone with good judgement! This guy is a disaster when someone else is to maintain his code! If you continue defending this poor candidate, I assure you I’ll never believe your judgement on candidates!”
I never realized I got an ending like that. I had to confess he’s god-dammed right. I was not strict enough. He is desperate to get ace players however I was just looking for someone who could do the work.
This is just one recent example about A. Actually he’s harsh on almost everything he pays attention. If you’re performing good, he gives you pressure to perform better, then to perform exceptional. If you failed something, he will be deliberately unkind to you. Before his leading to this R&D site,the bosses were all nice people. They will always encourage people, alleviating the blunder you made. But A’s different. He gave you a lesson in scribe in your heart.
To be a kind boss is easy. To be a harsh boss like A is hard. I feel quite lucky to have him as my boss.
