Raghu Mohan

Disclaimer: This post is nothing but a light read for Valentine’s day. Women, please don’t take up arms. (That doesn’t mean some of it won’t hold true for some programmers out there.)

Love is in the air and everyone is celebrating the feeling of companionship. But as we speak, there's a programmer out there, attending a developer conference, to keep his mind occupied and distracted from his single status. While all his friends are raving about their plans for their valentines, this programmer is probably hacking away to keep his mind off this silly nonsense (not that everyone thinks this).

Now if you're a girl reading this, you're probably thinking - Programmers? You mean like, a nerd? Why would anyone want to date them?

Well, I'll give you 10 reasons why you should.

Reason 1 - The stereotype is not true

Internet memes have done programmers a great deal of wrong. This is absolutely biased! In fact, programmers have normal lives, friends, and enjoy the things everyone else does. Yes, there are extreme cases, but it's like just that unbelievably good-looking guy who spends way too much time at the gym.

Reason 2 - He's probably very clever

You must admit that the programmer is very likely to be a learned guy. He can charm you with his razor-sharp intellect and crack you up with his witty and intelligent sense of humor. Also, he's definitely going to win your friends over by not being a complete nut. But of course, you could choose brawn over brain, and be in a situation like this.

Reason 3 - He's multifaceted

Programming is multidisciplinary and your programmer date is going to know about a lot more things than just coding. From talking about the latest celebrity gossip, you can effortlessly glide into a conversation about his impeccable taste in music (that has kept him company over many coding hours) to that awesome Spaghetti Bolognese he cooked the other day. Every programmer I've met till date has had some hobby he's really good at.

Reason 4 - He's probably rich

Computer science jobs are one of the highest paying ones in the world, in almost any part of the world. Your programmer date has a very high chance of being significantly well off, so you are assured of a posh place for dinner, AND you don't have to worry about getting out your purse. Ever.

Reason 5 - He's grateful

Thanks to the geek image that the programmer has carried for almost all his life, if you were to go out on a date with this guy, you're probably his first. While he's bound to goof up a few dating 101s, he's going to treat you like a princess. Every little thing you do will be magic to this guy, and it will take a long, long time before your charm wears off on him.

Reason 6 - He's empathetic

Your programming date has spent a lot of time developing software for his users. This involves understanding the users and knowing what they want and what they don't like. And because of this, he's probably attained a high level of empathy. He's totally going to get why you sometimes behave all weird and will think twice before doing something that might affect you in a not so nice way.

Reason 7 - He's patient

Your programmer date has also spent a lot of time dealing with the worst kind of customers and users, trying to build a product that would satisfy all of them. While that is never going to happen, he will be patient enough.

Reason 8 - He's rational

Combined with being empathetic and patient, your programmer date is also extremely rational. After honing his problem-solving skills for years, he's not going to fight with you on directions. He will simply use Google Maps and spend more time with you.

Reason 9 - He's straightforward

Programmers might be the shy type, but they're supremely straightforward. So, if they're feeling something, they're bound to tell you on the face. While it might not be what you always want, you can trust this man to be truthful to you.

Reason 10 - He's committed

If all these reasons don’t have you convinced, this last one surely will. All his human skills make him perfect boyfriend material and his rationale will make him a mature, and sensible partner. But a defining feature of programmers is that they're committed. The most talented programmers don't necessarily have the highest paying jobs. They choose the projects that touch them at an emotional level, and they work with them, while they could be making much more money. Once he's committed to you, no pretty girl can lure him away from you. He's yours, he's a keeper.

Agree? Disagree? Tell us what you think.

A tech interview is one of the most strenuous things that a programmer can be put through. Companies like Google and Facebook put prospective employees through as many as 8 to 9 rounds of interviews before making a hiring decision. Each round is tougher than the previous round and the number of mistakes that you can make is directly proportional to it.

Most mistakes are hardly ever technical. They're mostly related to interpersonal skills or the lack thereof!

Here are 5 ways in which you can mess up your tech interview.

Talking too much

Alright. You're interviewing with Google. You're excited! That's understandable. But being too excited can cost you that job like it did for Prakash Tibrewal.

Here is his story.

"During campus selections, I had an interview with Facebook. I had butterflies in my stomach!

The interview duration was 50 min. When the interview started, the interviewer was talking about what he was working on (just to make me comfortable). I was so excited that I asked him questions for the next 25 minutes.

That, believe it or not, was my biggest mistake. After those first 25 minutes, he gave me a problem to solve. While I figured out the algorithm quickly, I couldn't finish writing the code in time.

My interview as over after round 1.

This experience taught me that I must gauge a situation and learn to ask questions at the right time."

While asking too many questions can be unfavorable, asking a few or no questions can be interpreted as a display of lack of interest in the company. It is important to get the balance right.

However, as a rule of thumb, it is better to let the interviewer do most of the asking.

Being over confident

Coding interviews can be a nerve-racking ordeal. You may know the answer to every question but nervousness can get the better of you and you are prone to making silly mistakes.

Prakash Deivakani let nervousness get the better of him at his interview with Facebook.

Here's his story.

"I was interviewed by Ajay Somani of Facebook (Red in Topcoder). I was a grey coder by then. He asked me to solve a problem on the board.

I made a mistake and he asked, "Are you sure your solution is correct?" I identified the mistake and corrected it.

He asked again, "Are you sure your solution is correct?". Again, I identified the mistake and corrected it.

He asked yet again, "Are you sure your solution is correct?". While I remained silent, he said, "Your solution is correct. You can wait outside."

There are a few coders who are overconfident bordering on arrogant. It is very important to be confident yet humble. Any sign of arrogance is just going to tell the recruiter that you could be a bad team player.

Find that sweet spot between confidence and humility and you should be fine.

Taking the competition into office

Do some ground work about the company you are going to interview with. Who knows, using your favorite device might not go down too well with your prospective employer.

Here's what Doug Luce found out.

"I pulled out an iPad mid-interview to google the interviewer's question. He became visibly agitated and told me I couldn't do that.

The rest of the interview went downhill from there."

We're not quite sure if he was upset about the iPad or the fact that he was googling the question.

Rajat Khandelwal also had a similar experience.

"On the day of interview, I went to the Google office and just as I reached there, I realized that the bag I had was the one I got from InMobi. I didn't think ahead and carried that bag. I don't know but I like to think that it was one of the factors.

The interviewer asked a few questions, which I answered as best as I could. And in the end I asked him this question:

I've heard rumors that all good projects at Google are moved to MtV office so working at Google India is not as great as the name suggests. How true is this?

As soon as I asked the question, I realized that it was inappropriate. Even though my interview was great, my application was terminated at that level."

It's just that simple. Don't ask inappropriate questions or google your interviewer's questions.

Being too eager about the perks and privileges

IT companies set benchmarks in spoiling their employees. From free lunches and unlimited snacks to family severance packages and free health insurance—IT companies have probably covered every possible perk and privilege. This doesn't mean that you ask for it.

Naveen Kumar found it out the hard way.

"I was making a jump from Google to Facebook and I'd heard about the great perks that the Facebook office provides. I was particularly interested in the exotic meals that they provided—so excited that I asked a lot of questions about the meals and other benefits at Facebook to the interviewer.

I think the interview went off quite well, but I never heard back from them. Maybe they thought I was greedy."

Maybe they did. Questions about perks and benefits should be reserved for the HR preferably after you receive a job offer. Stay away from what's-in-it-for-me questions till then.

Not getting enough sleep before the interview

Whether its nervousness or plain old fun, lack of sleep before a big day has never helped anyone. Especially before an interview.

Nakul Agarwal made this mistake and he lost it all.

"I had just completed an interview with DirectI from 2 AM - 4 AM.

Earlier that day I had given two written tests for DirectI (for around 4 hours).

Yet there I was sitting in a black suit all ready for my interview at 5:30 AM with Intel India Pvt. Ltd.

I also had an Nvidia interview at 10 AM.

You can imagine the stress and exhaustion.

So I walk in, he asks me to sit down and asks my name. I give a smile and tell him my name. He then directly starts with the technical questions.

Interviewer: Can you write code for merge sort?

Me: Do you really want me to write the code for merge sort? Won't an explanation suffice? (I mean it is a well known algorithm! What can you possibly test by that?!)

Interviewer: Yes. Please write the code.

Me (writing on the paper) - void mergesort(int a[], int n) { }

Me: Do you really want me to write the code?

Interviewer: Yes

Me: I am not able to write it.

Interviewer (Smiles): Thanks. That will be enough.

Me: Thanks (A sigh of relief)

I go to my room and sleep like a child. I got late for Nvidia test next day :P and still finished first and went back to sleep. Like a child.

Now that's how you screw up interviews.

I didn't get through DirectI, Intel or Nvidia."

Always get enough sleep before your interview. Also, try to space interviews and schedule them for different days.

Have you ever seen a school of fish? In the ocean, a large group of fish moves together as if they were one entity—and they move fast. When a new fish joins, it doesn't think about moving fast; the school just takes it along, and the new fish moves just as quickly.

This is exactly what comes to mind when I think of Housing.com. The founders had just graduated from college a year earlier, and instead of taking the lucrative offers they had, they chose the tough road of starting up. It’s never easy, even for the experienced. But what they did next will go down in Indian startup folklore—three quick rounds of funding, a 750+ member team across India, and an eye on the international market, all in about a year. If you're a fish in the Housing.com school, you're swimming—really, really fast.

Much of Housing.com’s growth is credited to the product itself. Their revolutionary map-based real estate search earned rave reviews for disrupting a stable market. This product was built and enhanced by their 75-member engineering team, and they’re now looking to expand their mobile wing. As a participating company in the Android Hiring Challenge, they’re hiring top-performing Android developers from the event.

But before you opt to join this fast-paced journey, read our chat with co-founder Advitiya Sharma to understand what it’s like to work at Housing.com:

How did Housing.com come to be?

Housing was founded by a group of IIT Bombay graduates, many from small towns. Personally, I’m from Jammu and had never searched for a place to live until my final semester at IIT. When the time came, it turned out to be a nightmare. After a month of searching, we finally found something, but we kept thinking, "This problem has existed for years. Why hasn’t it been solved yet?"

That realization sparked the idea of creating a solution. It’s a problem that:

• Affects a large number of people
• Has existed for a long time, and people want a solution

That idea eventually blossomed into Housing.com :)

Why is Housing.com the coolest place for engineers?

We care deeply about changing the industry trajectory. We’re building great products and platforms, which means constantly pushing the boundaries of technology while keeping things intuitive and user-friendly. The thrill lies in creating meaningful, innovative work.

What kind of engineers impress you, and how do you keep them?

We admire engineers who are not only skilled but also passionate about their craft. We don’t enforce strict working hours—people take responsibility for their projects and work flexibly, even from home. Our HQ offers great perks: free lunch, pizza parties, movie nights. We’ve got it all :)

What’s the most challenging part of working at Housing.com?

People don’t come here to be spectators. They come to create impact and work with the best. That means constantly leveling up and growing fast. Scaling up and taking on big responsibilities is the toughest yet most rewarding part of being here.

Is it easy for new hires to settle in?

Absolutely. Our tech team has 75+ people out of a 750-strong company. A great idea is valued over hierarchy. If you share ideas and have the desire to learn, you’ll fit right in. We’ve got A+ folks in every department doing revolutionary work together.

What’s your vision for the company culture?

Housing is all about great people and their ideas. Everyone is focused on doing exceptional work—and having fun while doing it. We even emphasize the design of our office spaces. People come to work not because they have to, but because they want to.

Why should a developer join Housing.com?

There’s work, and then there’s work that makes you feel proud—where your fingerprints are all over it. If you want to do work that truly brings change, you can do that at Housing every single day.

You heard it from the source. If you're an Android developer and want to work at this fast-growing company, sign up for the Android Hiring Challenge today!

That’s obvious right? I mean, who wouldn’t want an iPad. But the point I’m trying to make here is bigger. As a HR professional, how often have you been faced with a situation where you’ve had to reward a resource for their outstanding work, outside of appraisals. If your company has been doing well for itself, you’ve faced this quite a few times.

So what do you do? Who can possibly know what every employee likes? Might as well give them an attractive cash prize and be done with it, right? Wrong.

You want to give your star performer a good gift. A souvenir that will remind them of their achievement. And not some memento that they can keep on their dusty display shelves. And definitely not a cash prize that they’ll spend over a weekend or so. You want to be able to give them a great gift.

So what is a good gift?

Dan Ariely, the author of the international bestseller, predictably irrational, shared that a good gift is something that circumvents guilt. On his blog he says-

“A good gift is something that someone really wants, but feels guilty buying it for themselves.”

“I think that the best gifts circumvent guilt in two key ways: by eliminating the guilt that accompanies extravagant purchases, and by reducing the guilt that comes from coupling payment with consumption.”

The first point is fairly straightforward - buy them a gift they would be guilty of buying themselves. An expensive pair of shoes, a premium end electronic gadget or a great coat that is outside a justifiable price range. These are far better than cash prizes, as they probably wouldn’t have been spent on these things because of the guilt associated with it. And it is guaranteed, that they will not only enjoy using it, but will also be a souvenir of their achievement.

Imagine that you have just finished a fantastic meal and have the option to pay with cash or with a credit card. Which one will “hurt” a bit more? You probably think that paying with cash will be a more miserable way of spending your money – but why? Because, as Drazen Prelec and George Loewenstein show, when we couple payment with consumption, the result is a reduction in happiness. When we pay with a credit card the timing of the consumption of the food and the agony of the payment occur at different points in time, and this separation allows us to experience a higher level of enjoyment (at least until we get the bill).

Many companies offer joining bonuses to an employee. But there are some which attract candidates using gifts like. For example, Hike, a company taking part in our Android Hiring Challenge, offers all of it’s new recruits the computer and phone of their choice. The cost of this could be equivalent to the exorbitant joining bonuses that some companies offer, but the prospect of having an iPhone 5s and a Macbook on joining a company seems more attractive to me at least.

So the next time you’re handing out that cash prize for being an exceptional perform, you might actually not be making a person as happy as he/she can be. Give them a gift that matches the same cost, and you might just have a happier employee.

Without being a sexist, if I were to ask you the number of intelligent women programmers that you know of, how many do you think that would be. Of course you can argue that more men work at IT companies, so the number will be obviously low. You can also argue that more man get educated than women, so more men make it to IT jobs.

No matter what your argument is, the data on this issue says another story. A story, which is a real concern

• In the U.S. in 2009, women earned 57% of all undergraduate degrees, 52% of all math and science degrees, 59% of the undergraduate degrees in biology and 42% of mathematics degrees, but only 18% of all computer and information sciences undergraduate degrees.

• Women’s quit rate in technology exceeds that in other science and engineering fields; 56% of women in technology companies leave their organizations at the mid-level point (10-20 years) in their careers.

• 57% of the professional occupations were held by women in the workforce, but 25% of the computing workforce were women in 2011

• In Stanford, in 2011, 56% of test-takers were female, 46% of Calculus test-takers were female, and only 19% of Computer Science test-takers were female.

The last point is particularly worrying, because there is a direct correlation between mathematical ability and proficiency in computer science. Why are there so few women in technology?

Surveys by various agencies brought the following points to light

• 74% of girls were interested in STEM fields and subjects.

• About half of all girls feel that STEM isn’t a typical career path for girls. 57% of girls say that if they went into a STEM career, they’d have to work harder than a man just to be taken seriously.

• 81% of STEM girls are interested in pursuing STEM career, but only 13% say it is their first choice.

So there are few inferences from the above data

• Women can do everything that it takes to be awesome at coding.

• Even if they do become awesome at it, most of them quit half way.

• Over time, careers in computer sciences have become less interesting to women.

• However, STEM is still interesting to women; they only don’t want to work on it.

• Male dominated workplaces seem to be a contributing factor to this.

So what do the women who have made it big in technology have to say about this? I interviewed Lynn Langit, who’s one of the first Google Cloud engineers, and had been an exec at Microsoft as well, and she said something shocking -

“My parents were farmers and they discouraged me from further pursuing it. They’d say ‘honey girls don’t do maths’. This has changed drastically over the years and I am quite old, but I believe that to a large extent the belief still exists.”

One of Sheryl Sandberg’s greatest lines on the issue was - “We don’t raise our daughters to be as ambitious as our sons. Last month, there were t-shirts sold [at Gymboree] that said 'Smart like Daddy' for the boys and 'Pretty like Mommy.' Not in 1951. Last month.”

So, it’s cultural.

It has been carried forward, generation after generation, and I think we can arrive at a consensus that women in general have not been encouraged to take their careers seriously. They were expected to lead on the family front, where they would build homes, as the patriarch would be the breadwinner, hence taking their profession more seriously.

Newsflash - this has changed!

Men and women are equally independent and the society presents both genders with the same opportunities when it comes to building a career. But the systems that run the society haven't changed.

I think it's coded into a woman's DNA to not take their careers as seriously as a man and the change of that mindset starts at home. Treating children of both genders in the same way with respect to academics and career can change that. Make the girl child feel that they must earn a living for themselves by doing something that they love to do. And IT being the lucrative industry that it is, will automatically attract woman talent.

Also talent is created at school. Schools must teach children the art of picking up subjects on their own. Education must lay emphasis on creativity and innovation, and not so much on grades. Getting good grades and learning a subject well is slowly losing correlation, as it is easy to mug up answers to a theoretical question. We must teach our children to apply what they've learnt and children will innovate; male and female alike.

Of course, the points that people like Lynn and Sheryl raise are true for people who are already a product of this system. But it is difficult to change. If there is any hope for an equal representation of genders in IT, it has got to change from the grass roots level.

If you've reached this point, some of you are probably thinking, what difference will women bring to technology. Well, I don't know about difference, but there will be more developers, which is always a good thing. But on a larger level, equal representation of genders is a sign of how evolved a society is. An evolved society empowers everyone with the choice to do whatever they want to. And if 81% of women in education are interested in pursuing a career in STEM, then they should be empowered with the right conditions to do exactly that.

Until we can do that, we will never evolve as a society.

Data source - http://sheplusplus.stanford.edu/sheStatistics.pdf