Ask Slashdot: How To Avoid Working With Awful Legacy Code? 360
kramer2718 writes "I have worked for about a decade as a software engineer. I am almost never hired to build new software from scratch, so my work satisfaction tends to be proportionate to quality of the legacy code I have to work with. Some legacy code has been good. Most of it is bad. I know a few questions to ask during an interview to determine the code quality: Are recent technologies used? Are there code review processes? Is TDD practiced? Even so, I still encounter terrible quality code. Does Slashdot have any advice for other questions to ask? Any other ways to find out code quality beforehand?"
Re:any questions? (Score:5, Informative)
"Applicant is not a synonym for supplicant" - Brilliant. What the parent poster here doesn't seem to realize is that good developers are not looking for a job. They already have one. And if you want to snare one of them you had better be able to answer their questions. Don't try to bullshit them, it won't work. If a prospective employer refused to answer those questions for me then the interview would be over right then and there.
Re:any questions? (Score:5, Informative)
My brother who works in construction does the same thing. He calls it the "fuck off quote". Most people turn you down and you walk away with a smile. A few accept but you're on triple rates so you do the job, however shitty, with a smile.