I get a lot of offers for sponsorship, but I turn them down because I don't like that sort of thing. But, one recent offer felt like it might be something readers would want me to say "yes" to.
I think my response depends on where you stand in regards to vetting these potential job offerings. It sounds ideal at a glance, but I imagine it would take some time to understand what these companies do and what they offer. I can also seeing it get a little messy, as startups tend to do sometimes haha
My not-particularly-thought-through-yet first idea was to do the posts as interviews where I ask questions to the company posting the jobs, and ask them about the positions, what the programming is like, what their attitude is on performance, etc. My thought was that this would both a) give readers the information they need to know whether they should engage with the company, and b) dissuade any company that isn't serious, because they would not look good in such an interview :)
That sounds like a good way to go about it, and if you feel like you have the time to go through that process without compromising doing the things you want to be doing then I am on board with it!
I think that's a really smart approach, I think also getting different industry perspectives solving different problems would be a fun thing in general.
This sounds quite nice. I've also got job changes (or broader undertakings under my current career -- mathematician) in sight for the mid-term future (planning and care required since I have mouths to feed!).
My time outside my current job is limited and split between upping my programming game, learning about possible jobs and planning my transition, so any curated information in this direction sounds very valuable to me.
Having just recently changed my web job to a more performance aware/embedded job. I felt like the resources on google and the other job posting sites were very heavily promoting web based jobs and I saw very few, if any, performance oriented type positions. I am not sure if this is just the actual reality that there are not a lot of openings in the performance space. But having more places to discover the companies that actually want and care about performance I think is a good thing.
Hey Casey, I voted “No” for the simple reason that vetting such potential jobs might take too much of your time which I think would be spent better on continuing to do the things you want to do with the course, Star Code Galaxy, your other projects etc.
I think most of us are stuck in non-ideal working situation, but at the end of the day when we interview for a job we also interview the company. It’s not a one-way street. Also it’s up to us as devs to push for better software practices in our jobs (if we have them of course)
My other concern is that job postings are very much location dependent. I think the audience of the course is rather international, but I’m not sure whether that’s a valid concern (even though I think it is).
In any case if you decide there’s value, I’m changing my vote to “I don’t care” :)
I love the idea and am a "hell yes" but, as others have mentioned, as long as it doesn't:
1) Eat too much of your time. (Honestly, I don't think scrupulously vetting a posting is on you. It's on the applier to ensure it's a good fitting. A questionable job position to you might be a clear opportunity in the right direction for the applier.)
2) Hinder course navigation. (Maybe a monthly job posting post? Or e-mails only?)
I value having easy and organized access to the content that initially made me subscribe (especially in regards to paid content). I am open to other content as well, provided it doesn't require significant effort to filter out if they're not of interest.
It is hard to come up with a firm answer without knowing the frequency of these sponsored posts and how relevant they would be to an international audience.
It really depends on how it's done. Paid subscribers may enjoy NOT being advertised to. It makes this a safe space to let my guard down and enjoy the content and focus on learning instead of filtering out the marketing and other noise. That's one of the reasons people come to Substack in the first place.
Thank you for asking us. After all, it is us students that are being bought and sold in this situation.
I do like the idea of a startup interview as a non-sponsored item, where you have full creative control over the content. The moment sponsorship enters the equation, it no longer becomes about your ideas, expertise, and judgement, but instead a transactional "access to an audience".
There may have been some people in Redmond who honestly thought "many users would find value" in installing Candy Crush by default on every operating system. However, I believe that is an insufficient criterion. The true standard is "would I want to do this without sponsorship?".
Thankfully, this question is solvable via direct experiment.
I hate seeing advertising of any kind, especially in content I’m paying for, so it’s a 'no' for me. That said, I can see how this would be helpful to others around here and that’s perhaps more important.
It seems like I am in the minority so I might as well state my thoughts as to why I voted no.
For Computer Enhance my goal is to learn about performance aware programming / complete the series. It is not to find a job. I like to take it one step at the time.
Besides I do agree with what you said on Q&A #40, that this knowledge is applicable to any job, as software runs on real hardware. Of course it is more applicable to some jobs more than others. Some tools and programming languages simply attract a certain type of person. It is a spectrum.
Please do that. The amount of jobs that seems nice and then ask "rate your skill from 1-5 in these areas" and one of the areas is boost is too damn high and actually depressing.
I said yes, but it is *absolutely key* that it is easy to filter away if one is not interested. I would hate to get a weekly email about rando jobs i don't live anywhere close to.
I would make this a pretty expensive thing for the company, so, I don't think there is any chance of even one per month, let alone one per week. It would only be for companies that *really* want to talk to my readers specifically.
Another way to say that is, I would adjust the price to ensure that it was relatively rare.
I think performance focused type of jobs are already relatively rare, perhaps we could have a "Job seeking" post where people can tell if they are looking for opportunities. That way people who're not interested won't receive spam.
I think my response depends on where you stand in regards to vetting these potential job offerings. It sounds ideal at a glance, but I imagine it would take some time to understand what these companies do and what they offer. I can also seeing it get a little messy, as startups tend to do sometimes haha
My not-particularly-thought-through-yet first idea was to do the posts as interviews where I ask questions to the company posting the jobs, and ask them about the positions, what the programming is like, what their attitude is on performance, etc. My thought was that this would both a) give readers the information they need to know whether they should engage with the company, and b) dissuade any company that isn't serious, because they would not look good in such an interview :)
- Casey
That sounds like a good way to go about it, and if you feel like you have the time to go through that process without compromising doing the things you want to be doing then I am on board with it!
I think it's fine if you want to do the interviews, but I don't think it should be a prerequisite for the job postings IMO.
I think that's a really smart approach, I think also getting different industry perspectives solving different problems would be a fun thing in general.
This sounds quite nice. I've also got job changes (or broader undertakings under my current career -- mathematician) in sight for the mid-term future (planning and care required since I have mouths to feed!).
My time outside my current job is limited and split between upping my programming game, learning about possible jobs and planning my transition, so any curated information in this direction sounds very valuable to me.
- Tássio
Having just recently changed my web job to a more performance aware/embedded job. I felt like the resources on google and the other job posting sites were very heavily promoting web based jobs and I saw very few, if any, performance oriented type positions. I am not sure if this is just the actual reality that there are not a lot of openings in the performance space. But having more places to discover the companies that actually want and care about performance I think is a good thing.
Congrats on what sounds like a positive job change!!
Seconded! Congrats!
Hey Casey, I voted “No” for the simple reason that vetting such potential jobs might take too much of your time which I think would be spent better on continuing to do the things you want to do with the course, Star Code Galaxy, your other projects etc.
I think most of us are stuck in non-ideal working situation, but at the end of the day when we interview for a job we also interview the company. It’s not a one-way street. Also it’s up to us as devs to push for better software practices in our jobs (if we have them of course)
My other concern is that job postings are very much location dependent. I think the audience of the course is rather international, but I’m not sure whether that’s a valid concern (even though I think it is).
In any case if you decide there’s value, I’m changing my vote to “I don’t care” :)
I love the idea and am a "hell yes" but, as others have mentioned, as long as it doesn't:
1) Eat too much of your time. (Honestly, I don't think scrupulously vetting a posting is on you. It's on the applier to ensure it's a good fitting. A questionable job position to you might be a clear opportunity in the right direction for the applier.)
2) Hinder course navigation. (Maybe a monthly job posting post? Or e-mails only?)
I value having easy and organized access to the content that initially made me subscribe (especially in regards to paid content). I am open to other content as well, provided it doesn't require significant effort to filter out if they're not of interest.
It is hard to come up with a firm answer without knowing the frequency of these sponsored posts and how relevant they would be to an international audience.
I'm not against it, but rather hesitant.
It really depends on how it's done. Paid subscribers may enjoy NOT being advertised to. It makes this a safe space to let my guard down and enjoy the content and focus on learning instead of filtering out the marketing and other noise. That's one of the reasons people come to Substack in the first place.
Sounds like a solid fit tbh, but you can always rescind/change down the line if it turns out to be less than ideal.
Thank you for asking us. After all, it is us students that are being bought and sold in this situation.
I do like the idea of a startup interview as a non-sponsored item, where you have full creative control over the content. The moment sponsorship enters the equation, it no longer becomes about your ideas, expertise, and judgement, but instead a transactional "access to an audience".
There may have been some people in Redmond who honestly thought "many users would find value" in installing Candy Crush by default on every operating system. However, I believe that is an insufficient criterion. The true standard is "would I want to do this without sponsorship?".
Thankfully, this question is solvable via direct experiment.
I hate seeing advertising of any kind, especially in content I’m paying for, so it’s a 'no' for me. That said, I can see how this would be helpful to others around here and that’s perhaps more important.
It seems like I am in the minority so I might as well state my thoughts as to why I voted no.
For Computer Enhance my goal is to learn about performance aware programming / complete the series. It is not to find a job. I like to take it one step at the time.
Besides I do agree with what you said on Q&A #40, that this knowledge is applicable to any job, as software runs on real hardware. Of course it is more applicable to some jobs more than others. Some tools and programming languages simply attract a certain type of person. It is a spectrum.
Please do that. The amount of jobs that seems nice and then ask "rate your skill from 1-5 in these areas" and one of the areas is boost is too damn high and actually depressing.
Maybe it's one of the marketing companies looking to write better AI scripts...
But seriously, I am looking for work at the moment so this could be helpful.
I said yes, but it is *absolutely key* that it is easy to filter away if one is not interested. I would hate to get a weekly email about rando jobs i don't live anywhere close to.
I would make this a pretty expensive thing for the company, so, I don't think there is any chance of even one per month, let alone one per week. It would only be for companies that *really* want to talk to my readers specifically.
Another way to say that is, I would adjust the price to ensure that it was relatively rare.
- Casey
I think performance focused type of jobs are already relatively rare, perhaps we could have a "Job seeking" post where people can tell if they are looking for opportunities. That way people who're not interested won't receive spam.
I wouldn't mind to hear about companies who care about this sort of thing, but only if Casey vetted them somehow.
Maybe the bar could be that they have some recent public article about an example of either some optimization or some story about some unorthodoxy.
This would be very motivating to take the content of the course even more seriously.