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Comment by bluedino | Hacker News Reader

"Qualified applicants" takes on a different meaning if you're looking for someone to crank out a CRUD app or write operating system kernels.

For example, we've been looking for an entry-level web developer for almost a year. They actually put "computer science degree" and "2 years experience" on the job ad. We found a pretty smart kid with an associates that blew the interview by mentioning he kept up with industry trends on Reddit - so our boss is afraid he's going to screw around online all day.

The sad part is, 3 of the other 4 developers in the department came from other areas in the same company, one in shipping and one in billing, and have almost no formal computer training and don't even know how to upgrade Firefox.

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blew the interview by mentioning he kept up with industry trends on Reddit

..as opposed to not keeping up with industry trends at all? Sometimes, I feel like middle management in America is the problem.

That's a comment that probably merited further delving into.

There are some decent sub-reddits.

It's a totally different thing if he's following the programming subreddit than say the gonewild subreddit.

Entry level with two years of experience?? I'd hope that isn't very strict or basically no one would be able to apply for the job meeting the requirements unless internships count, and even then you usually get like 1.5 years of experience that way.

"Entry level" in the US now means 3-5 years of experience. You're expected to work those years for free (as an "intern") to get the experience.

I don't mean to be snarky, but how are internships free in the technical fields? Low paid perhaps, but free internships for tech grads is a thing?

I made about 2/3 of the money in my Coop as I do now as a full time employee but then again my university required that we have a certain amount of paid internship time to get our degree so my experience may be atypical.

Perhaps your company's issue is that it's hiring practices are so convoluted and absurd that they are driving away most of the prospective hires that possess brains?

I'm sorry...what? He blew an interview by mentioning he follows industry trends on reddit?

Okay, I can understand being disappointed in hearing that because you don't like reddit and would wish for a better source (opinion), but even then I can't imagine acting on something so...trivial.

That's like me mentioning to a company I'm interviewing with that I like to browse my smartphone to keep up with feeds. Whoops, no job for me, I might dick around on my phone instead of helping clients.

I mean seriously? Is that the real reason why he screwed up the interview? Holy hell...

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