I have no side code projects to show you
Having recently endured a few horrific interview processes, I considered writing an article titled, “No, I Won’t Run Your Fake Work Gauntlet.”<p>Take home assignments, coding as performance art, timed puzzle solving, obscure technical questions, full day interview gauntlets—these are what I had been through. These processes are designed primarily to avoid false positives. False negatives are okay. This is unfair to the candidate, but the company gets to pick the tune. Rather the candidate _lets_ the company pick the tune.<p>About a month ago I landed a job. The interview process  consisted of two steps: an hour phone screen with the CTO followed by an on-site show-and-tell of a side project of my choice. (Coincidentally, the company is in downtown Austin, but is definitely not the company mentioned in the article.)<p>The process was a joy to me.  I have side projects to show. In fact, I showed two. The audience was approximately 10 developers. My impression is that the CTO was looking for a lot of thumb to go up.<p>Here’s what I liked about it. First, it was not a time suck. Second, it made me the driver,   allowing me to draw attention to the best parts, not just of my code, but of how I think about problems. It was downright relaxing.<p>To be sure, this is just a different way to prevent  false positives at the cost of false negatives. If you don’t have side projects but consider yourself a great developer I can understand why you would consider this process unfair. It sucks to be a false negative. But for me, it’s way better than the alternative.<p>Not every company needs to draw from every talent pool. I’ve happily taken myself out of the pool of companies which use those other methods. I’m glad there are some which use a method that suits me.