I sent a copy of my resume to HubSpot, and one of their talent acquisition people got me on the phone to talk. It sounded like a potentially good fit, and I was invited to take the HubSpot coding challenge.

Which I did.

Online coding assessments are all the rage for certifying a software developer's skills during the hiring process. Don't get me wrong, this is a much better system than what we used to have. A decade ago, all we had were red-flag job ads, whiteboard coding, and buzzword bingo. Back then, oh what I would have done for a chance to develop some actual code—even on a toy problem—just to demonstrate my programming prowess. And these systems are absolutely an improvement. We're on the right track.

The most well-known system is HackerRank's, but there are several others as well. I'm picking on HackerRank in the title, but I'm actually commenting on all the online coding assessments (including HackerRank). They all work approximately the same: They usually involve a number of multiple-choice questions followed by a couple of programming challenges. In the programming challenges, you can generally choose from a list of programming languages, and your solutions will be judged against pre-written test cases, some of which you might not have access to.

These assessments are much better than what came before, but they still suffer from fundamental pitfalls that you ought to be aware of, whether you're a job-seeker or a hiring manager. They're saddled with the fallout from an educational system that teaches memorization and compliance (rather than innovation and initiative), and they probably don't reflect what you want to be looking for in a software engineer.

A lot of companies were looking for Drupal and WordPress consultants this week, and you know what that means: another batch of funny job ads! No, really, I’m really excited about this week’s funny job ads, and I think you’ll agree. Because who doesn’t just LOVE funny job ads?!

Like this real-life job ad from CraigsList, which I swear is completely true, which is looking for “Smart Software Developers," as opposed to the stupid variety. (And if you’re not a smart software developer, I’m sure they might still accept your application, as long as you’re at least a technical rockstar.)

I hope you get as big a kick out of this as I did. Here are a couple of recent craigslist ads I did not reply to. I mean, yeah, there’s getting work just to make money. But then, there’s getting work just so you can make fun of your new client.

So, maybe I might have tried to get on one of these projects, just so that I could get some Dibert-esque, “You gotta be kidding!?” blog posts out of them. But I didn’t want to have to deal with the headaches, hypertension, gastritis, and murderous impulses. So I figured instead I’d just write about them here. That should help guarantee that they never hire me. (Whew!)

First up, a startup company advertising for a Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP developer. Hey, that’s right up my alley! But… Uh… I can only imagine that they’re actually serious. Frankly, this reads like a joke to me. (I added the yellow highlighting below, so that you’ll see what I mean.)

When older people can no longer remember names at a cocktail party, they tend to think that their brainpower is declining. But a growing number of studies suggest that this assumption is often wrong.

Instead, the research finds, the aging brain is simply taking in more data and trying to sift through a clutter of information, often to its long-term benefit.

This makes sense.

(Part 1 was posted yesterday.)

After four months of teamicide, Peopleware-style, I was ready to die. And when HR or my manager asked me, I told them the truth.

• It's the second-fastest growing job title.
• It's a highly creative position.
• It involves cool, cutting-edge technology.
• It pays decently.
• There are plenty of places to go once you're experienced.

-TimK