SEM time measure. Or “how do you know SEM and what to do next?”
Yes, we are launching the second series of Crossover Tournaments!
April 2 in St. Petersburg - this time we are looking for Software Engineering Managers and Technical Product Managers , and then April 22 in Moscow (.NET or Java techlides).
But before we talk about what will happen - let's see how it was in Moscow on February 18.
')
Honestly, when we decided to hold tournaments to select cool developers , instead of accepting all applications online - we desperately risked.
The price of this experiment could easily be a cracked company image, and even the level of confidence of the specialists with whom we work could be shaken. The thing is - when you work with people - you can never be sure that everything will go smoothly. Quite the contrary - one should expect surprises even from such balanced and calm, for the most part, programmers.
How could this happen? Yes, easily!
Instead of cooperation, competition could easily become the dominant event, and instead of openness, suspicion and mistrust. Still, we hire for real big money, and, you know, money sometimes changes people.
To our sincere joy this did not happen. Do you know why?
We had a working hypothesis that IT specialists are one of the few professional communities that do not put money at the forefront. Yes, a decent salary is important for us, as for any people. Yes, if this money is offered a lot - there is a desire to earn it. But the subtlety is that not a single truly great specialist can be lured only with money! Although you are showered with golden sand, a man will rather quickly ask you: “Listen, but where are the interesting tasks that I need to solve?” That is, the programmers who came to our tournament came with interest, and not greed in soul!
We took this risk for two reasons.
The first is that our CEO Andy Tribe cannot sit still - both literally and figuratively. He constantly wanders around the world, meeting with contractors and employees of Crossover - he shares his experience, asks questions, compares approaches in different cultural communities, draws conclusions from this - and again shares them with his colleagues. We somehow make a separate post with insights.
The second reason - we like to test innovative approaches, we learn, making mistakes. We had a risky hypothesis that we decided to test and rejoiced like children when it was confirmed.
More than a hundred people of the highest level of training came, who perfectly got along with each other. As usual at good parties - the latter had to be literally kicked out of the hall already late at night ... This is a mean joke, unfortunately.
In fact, we normally zafakapili timing. For a few hours. Some left late in the evening, instead of 19.00. What can I say - we have already apologized, the offers and prizes were distributed to the winners, so it remains to report on the lessons learned - this will be a separate post.
Someone came with a serious attitude to get a job - and got it!
Someone is to test his strength and look at the position of Chief Architect in order to understand whether he is his or not, and what skills are required to comply.
Someone honestly admitted to me that he decided to wipe our nose - to solve all our “children's tasks” and get (after accepting a job offer) a prize of two to five thousand bucks.
We, of course, could not disappoint you and prepared for our part. We tried to take into account all possible issues and gathered architects, project managers and even one Vice President (who grew up, by the way, from a Java developer). Plus, our dir.technical assessment Lucciano and CEO Andy flew in - barely fit everything on the stage.
In principle, they were not mistaken. There were, indeed, many questions, and each of us had something to say. Here, for example, Andy talks about the Crossover mission, big numbers and that when you work with those developers and managers who passed the Jedi-selection - it is possible to implement projects of any complexity.
Andy's vision is similar to the principle of Nemirovich-Danchenko, who once said: "I do not collect actors, I collect individuals."
In general, that first time everything was cool enough for us to repeat the tournament four times already: in Lviv, Krakow, Islamabad and Cluj-Napoca (this is in Romania). Thank you for trusting us and for coming. The first time - as usual - is not forgotten.
It's time for the second round in Russia. Now in St. Petersburg. And this time we are not looking for Architects. Now the task is even more difficult - to find SEMs and TPMs .
Why harder?
Of course, basic competencies are needed: - Conversational English - you need to understand any accent with interference in connection with children screaming in the background, some leadership qualities; experience of managing a group, technical background. But also, the fact is that Software Engineering Manager is a profession that is in a state of quantum collapse . I mean, when trying to figure out whether a SEM is human or not SEM, the answer is as unpredictable as in the case of measuring the wave function. Here you are facing a technical profile with a deep profile in Java - you start talking to him - bang, and he is the SEM you are looking for. And it happens the other way around - well, the poured out SEM - in all respects, even looks similar. You start to measure - and this is not it. With TPM it is even more difficult, therefore, we will not be engaged in analysis in this post ...
How does a person become SEM?
In fact, you yourself know. After all, there was such a thing - when you look at a task and instead of coming to a solution in the form of a code, a thought like: “I would have a couple of strong guys with competencies get to my head, I would set a task for them so that together in a week they would click ! ”That's when something like this happens - you collapse into the role of SEM. Then, of course, there comes a moment of return - when you take the task and solve it yourself or with a colleague - in the code. But the moment when you were already there is on the backs of consciousness - imagining the management of the team.
There are such Jedi - who have long been firmly aware of themselves as SEMs or, on the contrary, only once imagined themselves as them, we will look for them in St. Petersburg on April 2. Search, communicate and give interesting work. As usual - 40 hours a week. As usual - from a house, a park, from the beach, from a forest - but from anywhere. For these 40 hours we pay 8250 dollars a month. As for employment, we have a queue of vacancies. Therefore, those who qualify may be included in interviews with hiring managers for the next (their) week. In general, we plan to employ 20+ employees from each competition within a few weeks.
In the position of SEM, you will not just have to transfer information from the customer to the team (the chatbot in Telegraph or Slake will cope with this). You need to combine the goal, people, time and code. When I think about it, the following analogy comes to my mind.
At the meta level, SEM is a compiler that first performs lexical analysis, parsing the problem and putting it into a sequence. Then it translates all this into a parse tree — for its working group — the team. Together with the team, the meanings and key points of intermediate results are determined. The actual programming begins, during which you need to be sufficiently savvy in the language on the one hand, and to feel good about the people on the other. Only this combination gives SEM the power to optimize the process and generate the necessary "code", and in our case - to build a complete project.
It turns out that SEM is an absolutely indispensable and very responsible position. Its peculiarity, compared to pure programming, is that you work more with people, although you are responsible for the quality of commits. It's complicated. But very interesting. Especially if you remember that you will work with the most highly qualified specialists. This alone can be considered a bonus not worse than a social package.
Now I will tell how everything will pass.
We are going in the morning. At 9:00.
Address St. Petersburg, Moscow Ave. 97A, Holiday Inn Moscow Gate, conference hall.
We start at 9:30.
Let's start with 15+ minutes. dating, of course.
Like last (and any other) time, you will have the opportunity to ask any insidious questions about the Crossover. You have this opportunity throughout the day, but we start with this in order to immediately place as many points as possible over as many letters as possible.
Next - Action!
Tests Tests will be on logic and technical training.
In addition to managerial skills, first-class technical competencies are expected from all SEMs. Therefore, there will be a mandatory test of ownership of one of the working tools: Java, Ruby or .NET. Last but not least, your ability to work with a team will be tested. And even with teams, because in some projects you may have to manage several distributed teams.
In the final - an interview. Partially - personally with Lucciano, head of the technical evaluation of candidates, partially - via Skype with his future colleagues, partially alive with hiring managers, including Slava Kulakov, VP Engineering.
We will report the results immediately. No need to wait for any letters.
This is one of the format chips.
If you decide to come, I am personally very happy.
Please bring a laptop with you - you will need it.
And please, register by the link !
By the link for registration, by the way, there are still a lot of different useful and curious information in the form of text (small) and videos (interesting).
See you in St. Petersburg!
PS
Those who believe that in April in St. Petersburg is still too blowing - arrive on April 22 in Moscow . Or come if you live in it.
On this day we will look for:
- Java lead / developer (Chief Architect)
- Lead Developer / TechNet .Net (Chief Architect)
By the way, we conducted a survey here among our new colleagues. Of the more than 20 senior Java developers (aka Chief architect), 14 have been tested two or three times .
It is to me that if you were already at the Tournament on February 18, but did not receive an offer - come again, this is not prohibited by the rules. We believe that a person can draw the right conclusions from the feedback received and pump over. And the tests and the format will be new.
April 2 in St. Petersburg - this time we are looking for Software Engineering Managers and Technical Product Managers , and then April 22 in Moscow (.NET or Java techlides).
But before we talk about what will happen - let's see how it was in Moscow on February 18.
')
Honestly, when we decided to hold tournaments to select cool developers , instead of accepting all applications online - we desperately risked.
The price of this experiment could easily be a cracked company image, and even the level of confidence of the specialists with whom we work could be shaken. The thing is - when you work with people - you can never be sure that everything will go smoothly. Quite the contrary - one should expect surprises even from such balanced and calm, for the most part, programmers.
How could this happen? Yes, easily!
Instead of cooperation, competition could easily become the dominant event, and instead of openness, suspicion and mistrust. Still, we hire for real big money, and, you know, money sometimes changes people.
To our sincere joy this did not happen. Do you know why?
We had a working hypothesis that IT specialists are one of the few professional communities that do not put money at the forefront. Yes, a decent salary is important for us, as for any people. Yes, if this money is offered a lot - there is a desire to earn it. But the subtlety is that not a single truly great specialist can be lured only with money! Although you are showered with golden sand, a man will rather quickly ask you: “Listen, but where are the interesting tasks that I need to solve?” That is, the programmers who came to our tournament came with interest, and not greed in soul!
We took this risk for two reasons.
The first is that our CEO Andy Tribe cannot sit still - both literally and figuratively. He constantly wanders around the world, meeting with contractors and employees of Crossover - he shares his experience, asks questions, compares approaches in different cultural communities, draws conclusions from this - and again shares them with his colleagues. We somehow make a separate post with insights.
The second reason - we like to test innovative approaches, we learn, making mistakes. We had a risky hypothesis that we decided to test and rejoiced like children when it was confirmed.
More than a hundred people of the highest level of training came, who perfectly got along with each other. As usual at good parties - the latter had to be literally kicked out of the hall already late at night ... This is a mean joke, unfortunately.
In fact, we normally zafakapili timing. For a few hours. Some left late in the evening, instead of 19.00. What can I say - we have already apologized, the offers and prizes were distributed to the winners, so it remains to report on the lessons learned - this will be a separate post.
Someone came with a serious attitude to get a job - and got it!
Someone is to test his strength and look at the position of Chief Architect in order to understand whether he is his or not, and what skills are required to comply.
Someone honestly admitted to me that he decided to wipe our nose - to solve all our “children's tasks” and get (after accepting a job offer) a prize of two to five thousand bucks.
We, of course, could not disappoint you and prepared for our part. We tried to take into account all possible issues and gathered architects, project managers and even one Vice President (who grew up, by the way, from a Java developer). Plus, our dir.technical assessment Lucciano and CEO Andy flew in - barely fit everything on the stage.
In principle, they were not mistaken. There were, indeed, many questions, and each of us had something to say. Here, for example, Andy talks about the Crossover mission, big numbers and that when you work with those developers and managers who passed the Jedi-selection - it is possible to implement projects of any complexity.
Andy's vision is similar to the principle of Nemirovich-Danchenko, who once said: "I do not collect actors, I collect individuals."
In general, that first time everything was cool enough for us to repeat the tournament four times already: in Lviv, Krakow, Islamabad and Cluj-Napoca (this is in Romania). Thank you for trusting us and for coming. The first time - as usual - is not forgotten.
It's time for the second round in Russia. Now in St. Petersburg. And this time we are not looking for Architects. Now the task is even more difficult - to find SEMs and TPMs .
Why harder?
Of course, basic competencies are needed: - Conversational English - you need to understand any accent with interference in connection with children screaming in the background, some leadership qualities; experience of managing a group, technical background. But also, the fact is that Software Engineering Manager is a profession that is in a state of quantum collapse . I mean, when trying to figure out whether a SEM is human or not SEM, the answer is as unpredictable as in the case of measuring the wave function. Here you are facing a technical profile with a deep profile in Java - you start talking to him - bang, and he is the SEM you are looking for. And it happens the other way around - well, the poured out SEM - in all respects, even looks similar. You start to measure - and this is not it. With TPM it is even more difficult, therefore, we will not be engaged in analysis in this post ...
How does a person become SEM?
In fact, you yourself know. After all, there was such a thing - when you look at a task and instead of coming to a solution in the form of a code, a thought like: “I would have a couple of strong guys with competencies get to my head, I would set a task for them so that together in a week they would click ! ”That's when something like this happens - you collapse into the role of SEM. Then, of course, there comes a moment of return - when you take the task and solve it yourself or with a colleague - in the code. But the moment when you were already there is on the backs of consciousness - imagining the management of the team.
There are such Jedi - who have long been firmly aware of themselves as SEMs or, on the contrary, only once imagined themselves as them, we will look for them in St. Petersburg on April 2. Search, communicate and give interesting work. As usual - 40 hours a week. As usual - from a house, a park, from the beach, from a forest - but from anywhere. For these 40 hours we pay 8250 dollars a month. As for employment, we have a queue of vacancies. Therefore, those who qualify may be included in interviews with hiring managers for the next (their) week. In general, we plan to employ 20+ employees from each competition within a few weeks.
In the position of SEM, you will not just have to transfer information from the customer to the team (the chatbot in Telegraph or Slake will cope with this). You need to combine the goal, people, time and code. When I think about it, the following analogy comes to my mind.
At the meta level, SEM is a compiler that first performs lexical analysis, parsing the problem and putting it into a sequence. Then it translates all this into a parse tree — for its working group — the team. Together with the team, the meanings and key points of intermediate results are determined. The actual programming begins, during which you need to be sufficiently savvy in the language on the one hand, and to feel good about the people on the other. Only this combination gives SEM the power to optimize the process and generate the necessary "code", and in our case - to build a complete project.
It turns out that SEM is an absolutely indispensable and very responsible position. Its peculiarity, compared to pure programming, is that you work more with people, although you are responsible for the quality of commits. It's complicated. But very interesting. Especially if you remember that you will work with the most highly qualified specialists. This alone can be considered a bonus not worse than a social package.
Now I will tell how everything will pass.
We are going in the morning. At 9:00.
Address St. Petersburg, Moscow Ave. 97A, Holiday Inn Moscow Gate, conference hall.
We start at 9:30.
Let's start with 15+ minutes. dating, of course.
Like last (and any other) time, you will have the opportunity to ask any insidious questions about the Crossover. You have this opportunity throughout the day, but we start with this in order to immediately place as many points as possible over as many letters as possible.
Next - Action!
Tests Tests will be on logic and technical training.
In addition to managerial skills, first-class technical competencies are expected from all SEMs. Therefore, there will be a mandatory test of ownership of one of the working tools: Java, Ruby or .NET. Last but not least, your ability to work with a team will be tested. And even with teams, because in some projects you may have to manage several distributed teams.
In the final - an interview. Partially - personally with Lucciano, head of the technical evaluation of candidates, partially - via Skype with his future colleagues, partially alive with hiring managers, including Slava Kulakov, VP Engineering.
We will report the results immediately. No need to wait for any letters.
This is one of the format chips.
If you decide to come, I am personally very happy.
Please bring a laptop with you - you will need it.
And please, register by the link !
By the link for registration, by the way, there are still a lot of different useful and curious information in the form of text (small) and videos (interesting).
See you in St. Petersburg!
PS
Those who believe that in April in St. Petersburg is still too blowing - arrive on April 22 in Moscow . Or come if you live in it.
On this day we will look for:
- Java lead / developer (Chief Architect)
- Lead Developer / TechNet .Net (Chief Architect)
By the way, we conducted a survey here among our new colleagues. Of the more than 20 senior Java developers (aka Chief architect), 14 have been tested two or three times .
It is to me that if you were already at the Tournament on February 18, but did not receive an offer - come again, this is not prohibited by the rules. We believe that a person can draw the right conclusions from the feedback received and pump over. And the tests and the format will be new.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/325244/
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