If I was forced to take part in this absolutely idiotic exercise I’d be including descriptions of the purpose of the code along with the screenshots/printouts.
“These are the configuration files I maintain. Collectively these control the orchestration of 9,000 of our servers which make up over 80% of our infrastructure” would be be pretty compelling.
Ultimately, while he’s going about it in an insane way that I will not defend one iota, he’s trying to figure out who does what.
It’s one of those things where you have to read between the lines and figure out what the client/exec/boomer actually needs and wants, versus the nonsensical thing they actually asked for.
Your boss who wants his emails printed out every morning may actually just literally want them on paper OR they may actually want a system of triaging and responding to messages that is easy to do with paper but is difficult to achieve with software (and is still, honestly, clunkier than using paper sometimes if we’re being honest)
A hazing ritual to find out who is properly loyal, and who is unwilling to bend the knee.
I don't think he cares too much about the screenshots themselves. I think this is a pretty simple test to see who comes running to the 10th floor and who says: "that's insane, no".
Feels like everyone wants to be the exception, and just assumes “someone else” should do actual hands-on work
In an org of that size, there's much work just in stopping other people writing really bad code.
> Feels like everyone wants to be the exception
Right. You can easily write 10x the number of lines than an average engineer and create negative value for the product.
The job of software engineers is to design and implement solutions to business problems with technology. The job of a software engineer is not merely "write code." Writing code will almost certainly be the smallest percentage of a skilled engineer's time. They need to be spending their time thinking and designing.
We're talking about solving extreme scaling problems at extreme scales here, not churning out crud apps at a local freelance studio.
Senior/Staff's Perspective: "I was hired to solve business problems, sometimes I write code"
;-)
I've never suggested someone should be fired if they can't produce code snippets. But it's fair to expect people who don't actively code (when they're not managers or have a non-coding title) to have a reason they're not coding. And there are many perfectly great reasons, especially for very senior engineers. But if someone isn't coding and they're not actually doing anything else of particular value... well, they're not valuable engineers.
Code is not the single-and-only decider of an engineer's contributions, but I reject the notion that it can't be a starting filter to evaluate someone's contributions, and the assessment to proceed from there.
But while engineers obviously have to spend time thinking and designing, it’s the code that does the actual work and embodies the value of the engineer’s plans. I simply fail to see how a software org could exist where only a small minority of engineers are coding. Makes no sense to me, sorry.
This is a problem.
you're saying they can't pour footings for a data center -- not the same job at all
(or even can't set up a build system, which, god bless)