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Comment by eggy | Hacker News Reader

Yes but higher signal to noise ratio back then and programming and computer science were not as much a commodity degree. Now there are so many people on the internet and playing chameleon ;)

You had to seek out jobs in newspaper listings in local or national newspapers (international too). I would get people applying for jobs back in early 90s who thought that having a modem at home and having read one programming book qualified them for the job.

No coding interview in those days, but you were let go in a day or week if you could not perform what you said you could do during your first two tasks.

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I do wonder if they higher fast and fire even faster approach isn't ultimately better for everyone than the silly whiteboard interviews many companies do nowadays. At least there was an exact match between the skills because of which you have the job and the skills you need on the job.

> I do wonder if they higher fast and fire even faster approach isn't ultimately better for everyone

I think so and I wish it was the case. It was always frustrating, when I worked at large companies where poor performance wasn't an easily fireable offense, that it led to quality performance not being an easily laudable trait. I've also found in states and companies that are willing to fire bad developers (as opposed to, say, stringing them and the sub par side of the industry along), the cream has an easier time reaching the top. Sadly, due to sympathy for the employee and hate for the employer, many places make it harder for your signal flourish simply because of the protection of the noise.

Hiring and firing come at a nonzero cost, just like whiteboard interviews.

If ten people apply for a position and their resumes all look good the company needs some way to determine who to hire.

That's right. A whiteboard interview can be done without getting the interviewee up to date with the company's policies and tools, which might take longer than a couple hours.

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