| I'll offer some counter points, but my view point is skewed. - The best programmers come from all over the world. While it'd be great if they can attend these parties, it's not practical, even if they are within the same country. - Companies do throw/host a lot of meetups to attract top coders. Top coders are usually kept very happy by their current employers and not looking to leave so they don't usually attend recruiting functions unless they are the ones recruiting. - If you want to see parties thrown as recruiting events, go to Uncubed in SF. It's a wonderful time, but most people are just entering into the industry, so not many senior level guys. - * Most programmers I meet at my workplace thought the interview was pretty easy, to which I say "Of course you did, you're here, but think about the 30-40 candidates before you that failed miserably." I meet a lot of skilled programmers that hate coding tests/interviews, the reason? They already know they can do the job, they know they're gonna ace the interview because they're awesome. But guess what? A lot, and I mean a lot, of people that fail thought the same. - Don't discount social skills. Some roles are more client facing than others, or working with non-technical folks. Communication is key to projects. I think any programmer that's been a hiring manager will agree there are many senior level people that just can't code,entry level grads with CS degrees that can't write algorithms or figure out time complexity. Just my point of view. |