Is it just a time sheet/app where developers track their time or is it spyware like Upwork's screen capture tracker?
Be wary of any developer who agrees to install spyware. These are either entry level developers or really crappy devs.
I have both worked as freelancer and hired freelancers. I find these spywares extremely insulting. We are not high school kids working in fast food joint. We are professionals & business owners.
As a freelancer, if a company asked if I would install spyware on my machine, it indicated that it was probably badly run company. If it was optional I would ask how many other devs had the spyware on their machines. If there were more than 1 or 2 devs, it just meant I would be working with bad devs and just declined contracts. Same if it was required. Pretty much all those companies had issues with their devs and had to scrap projects or start over.
And when I hired freelancers, if a freelancer indicated they had no problem with spyware, it set off all kinds of red flags. And every single time if I hired such developer, they were horrible and needed a lot of hand holding.
I have worked with many offshore developers as well as private contactors in India, China and Eastern Europe. There are absolutely many cases of people working on multiple things at once (especially in support) when they are supposed to be exclusively working on one thing. It's been very common to see only half of the team actually "working", many times experts have been learning as they go along with less experience than I have in a particular area (I've very much a jack of all trades). However, I've built up many good relationships with excellent and committed staff over the years. If it was my own money, I'd absolutely be wanting to verify that the staff were working the agreed hours and getting stuff done. However in the most part it's not been in my best interest to get involved in those kind of discussions.
For me, most courses move too slow and it is really hard to find anything specific from watched videos.
With books & written tutorials, I can scan whole page in 1-2 seconds and skip if needed. And if need to retrieve information from previous sections, I can either use find command. In case of physical books, it is still faster then scanning through videos.
As a Pakistani-American, I can confirm, this is exactly how many people from my culture also work, though not as extreme as 9-9. We may take long lunches, go for multiple coffee breaks, walks, etc. May even watch some Bollywood movies while working.
But as a father, this is horrible work schedule. Culturally, it is totally acceptable for fathers to just provide but not really interact with their kids. Also there is an aspect of heroism of fathers working long hours to provide. And then, unfortunately, for some there is no option but to work long hours because they need extra money.
But some men would rather stay away from their children and let moms or grandparents raise the them. And I do know some such men. They stay late at work to avoid their families, they even bring their gaming laptops to work, so they can game after 5 and avoid their families. Honestly, work is a walk in a park compared to being a good father.
But it is hard to tell who is avoiding their families, who is staying late because of cultural pressures, and who really need to work late hours to provide for their families.
I graduated in early 2000s, and I heard same things from CS students/graduates and self-taught developers. They all said the golden age of computer science was 60s, 70s, 80s, or early 90s when people got into computers for love of it not money. Now everyone is computers for money.
Sadly though I did meet a lot of students in my CS program who were in it for money and openly admitted they hate programming, logic, etc and cannot wait until they get a job and then move into management.
I graduated in 2003 form a Software Engineering programme. From the 100 people that started the 1st semester, only 15 of us got out. Of those 15, 4 of us had a Software Development specialization, around 5 specialized in Networking and the rest chose "Administrative IT" specialization.
Most students didn't like programming, but knew that there was money to be made in computer technology (we started in 1999, the internet was booming before the 2000 bubble burst).
Glad that I am not alone. Just got another rejection email. No LeetCode, problems seemed realistic, I solved them all. Really have no idea what they were looking for.
This was my 4th application where I was rejected after final round. A lot more where I didn't get past initial screening etc. Feeling down right now.
I have 15 years of technical experience, I never got a chance to specialize but I can handle everything, DevOps, database, frontend, & backend. Perhaps that's my fault for just getting work done instead of focusing on my career. Perhaps I am getting really old for this industry. Maybe I really should go in the management.
I'm so sorry to hear it. I will tell you that I likewise had a lot of final round rejections. The most soul-crushing rejection came after 9 interviews, a 10hr take home, and a 4hr on-site – and through all of it, every decision maker told me they were excited to start me.
Nope, rejection comes 2 weeks after the on-site with no explanations, and they refused to elaborate further.
The sole advice I can give is unfortunately to just keep going. Wish I had more. Best of luck.
Until this job search, I usually had two interviews, one technical screen and one behavior interview. And this was for senior roles. And usually, I almost always got offers. Most of the time, I was deciding between two jobs.
I think everyone is trying to replicate FAANG's success by copying their hiring practices. Maybe this is a hazing ritual to find really obedient workers.
Either way, we have to play this game and keep trying.
Once someone explained tolerance vs philosophy of tolerance that made sense to me.
Tolerance is just a word that means that you are okay with things that you find annoying/repulsive. E.g. you were annoyed but tolerated flight delays.
Philosophy of tolerance is that you belief that all people deserve to live in peace even if you don't agree with their lifestyle, skin color, religion etc. AND if you really believe in it, you will fight against any ideas that disagree with this philosophy.
The tolerance as philosophy is not a logical problem. It is dealing with human behavior. It doesn't require that in order for you to adhere to it, you must also tolerate intolerance. Though in my view, sometimes it is okay to stay quiet when your racist uncle is whining about "others" at family dinner.
