cofounderYC17

Echo chamber?

FYI - I am not at a YC startup :)

$130K and 5 years of exp...

Interesting, thanks for the details. I'm in San Francisco bay area and thought $150k would be the "bottom" for big companies.

Sure, the first car was invented in 1807. Ford was created in 1903. The upcoming Ford GT (limited production) became one of the most wanted car in history last year.

You need to understand the difference between creation, industrialization and adoption.

Here is an example of well known agile teams: windows team, iOS team, android team, etc. I'd be curious to know where you work and what you do. If it's not related to software development. Are you an Ops guy? Sys admin?

Sounds like you've never heard about Agile/Scrum and the software lifecycle. Developers are resources, they get allocated on a set of tasks. Have you ever heard of velocity? It's the number of tasks a group of developers can complete in one single iteration. It's called productivity. Welcome to the modern world my friend, it is indeed a factory out there and I don't know where you work but it might be outdated. You should google about the Software lifecycle. It's good to know if you're in the software business.

Of course... listing all the PM tasks is not the point here. I'm referring to tasks that are in direct relationship with coding. If we get rid of the coding step then the closest thing is the PM. Which is the point I'm trying to make here.

I sure know about the vision, strategy, blablabla... that's why I think it's the best bet, because those skills will be harder to replace compared to programming languages.

My solution would be to setup a standard exam that would result in a score. This score would be valid for a period of 6 months, which would help candidate applying to multiple companies at once using the same score. You would have the possibility to re-apply to the exam several times until you'd land a good score. Your score would expire after 6 months. This exam would be hosted by several skilled engineers from different companies. They would be trained in evaluating technical skills and would be specialized in different areas. When you'd apply for a job, there would be a place to enter your score or a way for the company to pull out your score. Then they would trust that score and not run any technical interviews during the hiring process.

Instead, they would only focus on cultural fit. All you'd have to do is to chat with the team about work, life, etc. Of course, you'd get invited only if you have a certain score. By focusing on cultural fit, this would increase employee retention. Also, this would balance out the referral process and give an equal chance for everyone. My score would be comparable to your score in a meaningful way.

Long story short, we need a GMAT for software engineers in order to normalize the process.