kaokun

Tools like gdb and docgen are useful for smaller open source projects, but I think they quickly loose effectiveness on a large code base. For example I think the original post's high level view would work great when starting a new job as well as when diving into an open source project.

That said one step down the chain from stack traces and profiler output might be to look at log files, or run the code in verbose/debug/trace mode if it exists.

I am truly amazed by this, and I would argue that London is the best place to live in the world. I don't think popping over, or even coming for an extended multi-week visit, can compare with living here for months or years.

Even if, as it sounds, you've lived here for years and you've gotten a bit tired of it, surely you can agree that if somebody hasn't ever lived in London they would be crazy not to try it out? :-)

Great feedback, thanks mseebach.

Personally I love it... to each his or her own :-) It's verbose but information-rich, no?

You're right on that second point, that needs re-wording. With that in there it's surprising we've had so many people from Europe, the US, Canada, and even non-London-UK apply for and get internships with us :P

Thanks for your feedback kolektiv. Allow me to follow up on a few of your points:

a) If you have any advice on how to get our name out in the geek community then let me know. You are right that a lot of our community stuff is Perl or Geo focussed, but that's where our expertise is so that's where we can contribute the most. How well received would we be at a Python or Ruby event? Or are there more generic events we should be aware of?

b) When it comes to interns and more junior roles we really need to physically see you, every day, with face to face interaction. You just get more bandwidth and more effective communication that way.

Your point about working smart is 100% right. Internally we have 'work smart not hard' as one of our mantras, and that's not well reflected in the job ad at all. Thanks!

c) We don't say anything about money precisely because London is expensive and getting more so every year. One way to work smart is to write an intern job ad that we've hardly touched since 2006, despite the fact that intern salaries have increased consistently every year since then. We also like to be flexible based on people's experience - is it really worth putting on a job ad "£25K - 50K" when that's the range we're willing to consider for different candidates?

d) We're a small company of ~15 people with 4 engineers. That means if we hire you as our fifth engineer you're immediately making up 20% of the engineering team! You're damn right we want to make our interview process intense. I think it's fair to forewarn candidates about that.

Thanks again for your feedback. I hope you'll share some more, especially on point (a) about getting our name out there more.

Not all strings are ASCII! :-(

What about:

"I'm too 1/cos(C) for my shirt"

This is mine too. How is it possible that

   * the ratio between the a circle's circumference and diameter
   * the number such that the derivative of e^x = e^x
   * the square root of negative 1

Have anything to relate them to one another?? That last one isn't even a number!

Mind. Blown. The universe is one crazy place.