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I am a veterinarian and recruiting is way more straightforward. You’re not going to test the person on the spot. It’s way more about personality fit, what you like/dislike to do, and where you see yourself a few years later down the road. And then a real paid tryout.

Also I just changed jobs and was able to write code quickly because they were recruiting with tasks in mind for me. Sometimes it feels like the position is just opened to have more velocity on the sprints.



Veterinarians have boards and licenses, right? I can't hang a shingle as a vet on a whim. That's a very clear filter. All the vetting of whether or not someone can perform the job is done before they even get to you.

However, anyone can call themselves a programmer and apply to programming jobs and there's no way to tell if they're capable or not until they're at it.

And even previous job experience isn't a strong signal of competence. I've inherited code bases from people who left for other programming jobs where the code they left behind was just a mess inside.


Even boards and licences won’t keep one from being a bad recruit. It has the same value as a CS degree I guess most people applying will have, and you’ll still be whiteboarded.


1. “I am a veterinarian and recruiting is way more straightforward”

2. “Also I just changed jobs and was able to write code quickly because they were recruiting with tasks in mind for me.”

Is no one else confused by this? How common is a coding veterinarian and why do veterinarians write code?


I program as a day job and kept a small nightly gig as a veterinarian, which was indeed my degree.

How common is coding as a hobby? I used to code as a teenager as many here. Made the switch for many reasons.


I just took it to mean they were a veterinarian and now they work as a programmer.


But the first is in present tense, and the second says jobs not fields. It’s enough to be very unclear.




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