Where can you apply for a programming job when you are a Class A asshole

I don't understand why this is so hard for so many programmers. As the person frequently on the other side of the table, I can tell you this process is pretty easy to get right.

Engage with the question. I'm asking it for a reason; you might think it's stupid, but I wouldn't ask if I didn't care what your answer was. You can tell me you think it's stupid, but even better would be to _answer_ the question then _ask_ why I want to know.

If the technical problem is easy for you, then demonstrate that it's easy. I actually don't care if you solve the problem (and very few interviewers I've spoken with care either). I care that you can think through a problem, articulate your thought process, and then explain to me the solution you've arrived at.

Software development in a team setting is a collaborative process. That collaboration often manifests itself through answering stupid questions, writing pseudo-code on a whiteboard, explaining why your code does what it does, and asking others (politely) why their code is the way it is.

The longer I do this work, the more convinced I become that the software part of it represents less than 30% of what makes a good developer, and the interview is not to find the programming savants, rather to weed out people who will make working on a team a nightmare.

> Where can i get a job as a programmer where class A assholes can apply?

Only bad places, where you'll work with other miserable people. Most good places have a "No Assholes Allowed" rule.

> After years in the industry

If you're jumping through all these hoops after years, you might not be as good as you think you are. You make up for the ego hit by thinking interviews and the questions they ask are beneath you. When really, they're doing exactly what they're intended for. Weeding out asshole developers that think they're better than they are.

I have a few rules that have helped me land good jobs:

1. If they want me to napkin code, I call it quits immediately, even if I know the code they want me to write be heart. Watching me write code on a whiteboard or piece of paper has no demonstratable connection to how I work day-in and day-out. Places like this would be both a waste of their time to hire me, and a waste of my time to interview for. I always ask up front about this if I'm unsure how the interview goes.

2. I set myself up to control the interview. I bring my laptop, ready with a bunch of work I've done that I can show off. When I sit down, I ask "Hey, I brought a bunch of interesting projects that I can show off, is that alright?" If they aren't interested in seeing that, they are clearly not interested in the sort of work I do, and not interested to see how I can fit into their team.

3. Ask what their typical day is like. This includes asking what the most painful part of their day is.

4. I want to know specifically who I need to talk to and who would need to talk to me to finish my work. The higher the number of people I need to talk to, and the lower the number of people who talk to me is a real bad sign. Reporting to and trying to appease multiple bosses with completely different goals and timelines is bad. Also, if there is no one under me, then job clearly doesn't respect or desire mentorship.

Sometimes I skip some of these steps, and obviously your mileage will vary, but always ask the questions that give you answers to how you like to work. For instance, if you want a cubical and want to put on headphones, ask about the office layout, and what expectations the company has for your communication abilities.

As a recovering asshole myself, I can tell you from experience that life becomes significantly easier in many different ways if you at least improve yourself to the level of a class B or class C asshole.

Start with charging 150 credits an hour and call yourself a consultant, laugh all the way to the bank and consider being an asshole an asset: you're allowed to speak the truth as an outsider, and companies will happily pay for someone to tell them the things they technically already know but that nobody dares to be found out speaking aloud for fear of being called an asshole.

Annually raise your fee by 25%. You'll find better paying gigs with companies that appreciate you even more.

btw: since this post serves as a one-person who wants to be hired: your website is down.

I'm convinced that if you want a job, you don't have to be the person that its only being interviewed, you must sell your self as the programmer that they need, if you cant convince them that you are the one for the job, you should try to understand what are yours strengths or just to find people that have the same values as you.

As someone who has worked with a couple of Class A A##holes I guess even they have to pretend they are nice when interviewing.

These were both technically brilliant but would backstab, take credit for others work, deflect blame, even include customers on copy when scolding me etc, so I'd definitely classify them as Class A A##holes.

BTW: Are you sure you qualify as Class A? The kind of technical brilliance these guys had, combined with such utter lack of respect for others and also the galls to be totally open about not respecting others, that is quite rare...

I never "fit in the team". Became a freelancer

Consider starting your own business. "Assholishness" is a trait that can be channeled into something that is valuable to a startup, and you're probably going to be willing to hire yourself.

I'll take a contrarian approach and say that, as a Class A asshole, you can get a job almost anywhere. Every team I've been part of as a dev or team leader has had at least one. I've been in hiring cycles where management has overruled interviewer consensus to hire the one person we agreed we wouldn't want to work with. So don't discount your odds on landing a job.

You can only get away with being a Class A asshole if you are at least a Class A programmer.

Even then, there aren't many shops anymore which afford the closet & bucket o' fish heads approach. Maybe government contractors or smaller crypto projects.

Everywhere else, you need to at least get along with other people. Most shops have realized the 'rockstars' only look good on paper. https://www.inc.com/scott-mautz/a-biologists-study-of-superc...

Upwork.

I know that many here despise Upwork, but they are wrong.

You will need to build a profile before you can earn higher hourly rates, but then it is great.

Better to invest a few months of your life in building a profile and then be free than to be dependent on others forever.

I would hire a self-described asshole if he were honest and smart and took his craftsmanship seriously.

I understand such a person might call himself an asshole, but I don’t find that a useful descriptor. I would use the word “difficult.”

You need to find tough people who like hearing the truth. Working with difficult people is okay in proportion to their value. Be valuable and you buy freedom in other dimensions.

Nice people can be bad at their jobs because people like being around them (this explains a lot of terrible managers).

I am pretty sure that the best course of action for those of us in this situation is to hide who we are and submit to other's will, or starve to death.

I am unironically thinking in stop trying to get into tech, move to the countryside and live of subsistence farming.

Sorry for the rant.

People skills are skills.

idk I think you have to think differently. It's a game that you play. No one cares about your problems or quirks on an interview. Think of what they want to make a decision and be that...respectful, courteous, helpful, excited...then slowly be yourself as appropriate AFTER you get in as they'll be invested in you to be more accommodating. They may even celebrate your unique personality after getting to know you, even if its a little darker than others.

You are clearly dealing with other issues you need to sort out.

are there actually any tech companies that don't require whiteboard coding interviews?

Ur own

You sound like an exec who got born into the programmers caste for sins in your past life.

Edit. I'd hire you just because I'm tired of this sassy bs that takes place in a typical software firm.