Daniel Doubrovkine
code.dblock.org · Personal blog · on HN since 2010
Daniel Doubrovkine, an engineering leader formerly CTO at Artsy, writes about hiring, open source practices and moving between management and engineering.
What HN saysHN commenters cite it for open-source-by-default practices, going from CTO back to individual contributor, and interview and recruiting processes.
28HN people shared it
7linked it in comments
78stories submitted
890story points
8 months agolast shared
2010people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Pros and Cons of Going from Management Back to Individual Contributor3 people · 3 points · first shared 2019 · discussion on HN
- 2Becoming Open Source by Default3 people · 1 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 3Alla Klein: a fake person in charge of customer support2 people · 72 points · first shared 2011 · 34 comments on HN
- 4How to Reject Engineering Candidates2 people · 38 points · first shared 2015 · 47 comments on HN
- 5Do Not Fix Bugs Reported in Your Open Source Projects2 people · 12 points · first shared 2024 · 1 comments on HN
- 6How do you reject Engineering candidates?2 people · 5 points · first shared 2013 · 1 comments on HN
- 7Five Ways to Torture Candidates in a Technical Interview2 people · 2 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 8GitHub Is Your New Resume (2011)2 people · 2 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 9How to Make Recruiter Spam Useful2 people · 2 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 10Why One Giant Source Control Repository Is Bad for You (and Facebook) (2014)2 people · 1 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 11Github is Your New Resume1 people · 174 points · first shared 2011 · 142 comments on HN
- 12Keeping a Changelog at Work (2020)1 people · 162 points · first shared 2024 · 61 comments on HN
- 13Moving to New York: a Guide for Software Engineers1 people · 100 points · first shared 2011 · 78 comments on HN
- 14RoR Win: “Getting Things Done” with MongoDB Mongoid1 people · 61 points · first shared 2011 · 8 comments on HN
- 15Java Native Access (JNA) is now a Githubber1 people · 33 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
dblock · 2020-01-08
I joined AWS 6 months ago at 43 as a principal engineer, transitioning from a CTO role of a Series D company, and wrote about it.
https://code.dblock.org/2019/11/17/the-pros-and-cons-of-going-from-man…
I would recommend it.
saniul · 2015-02-13
This is a great read on this topic, by Artsy’s CTO Daniel Doubrovkine – http://code.dblock.org/2015/02/09/becoming-open-source-by-default.html
abuiles · 2013-02-11
As Peroni mentioned, Targeted is more effective yet difficult.
A good approach to this is something that I would call "passive targeted recruiting", basically implement policies as "always be recruiting" and having your doors open (office-hours work great for this), take 1 - 2 hours of your week to talk with people interested in knowing more about your company, etc. Also I would say enforce cultural fit over technical, I saw Polyvore's about page and see that you do a really good job selling your culture :).
We release recently an interview with Daniel Doubrovkine about office-hours http://bit.ly/WFhVvo, he also writes a lot in his blog about hiring http://code.dblock.org/help-me-fix-tech-recruiting-become-a-recruiter
Hope it helps! I would be interested in discussing further about the subject if you want (email is in my profile).
seige · 2014-05-29
First, the state of the art of "taking technical interviews" hasn't changed in the last 10yrs at least. This is, when we as an industry are harbingers of "change".
The bottom line is that the interview process is time consuming, expensive and often not the aspect of your job for which you will be held accountable for (i.e. you get fired if you are unable to recruit).
An interviewer in such a case, has no incentive to carefully think about the process. Usually the interview time during his/her day is not the prime task at hand and he/she has to run to "other meetings".
In such an environment and time constraints, We come down to our rote notions of what "intelligence" means.
If you are interested, I would recommend these two very well written articles:
1)http://code.dblock.org/five-ways-to-torture-candidates-in-a-technical-…
2)http://code.dblock.org/how-to-reject-engineering-candidates
Lastly, I wish you luck if you are a so called Front End engineer or worse, a female engineer in this industry. Its really rough out there for them in special.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and practice my bit manipulations.
orta · 2023-01-07
I was working at Artsy while the OP was CTO (:wave:) and tried to help out a bunch on fostering a good attitude towards OSS - there's quite a few notes in both artsy/README and the blog
- (the making of artsy/README) https://artsy.github.io/blog/2018/08/21/OSS-by-Default-Docs/
- (OSSing our apps) https://artsy.github.io/blog/2019/04/29/how-did-artsy-become-oss-by-de…
- (OPs writeup on the philosophy) https://code.dblock.org/2015/02/09/becoming-open-source-by-default.htm…
- (the RFC process) https://artsy.github.io/blog/2019/04/11/on-an-rfcs-process/
acjohnson55 · 2021-11-30
Nah, I've got better things to do.
My old boss, however, has good advice on how to make them useful, for those who care to respond: https://code.dblock.org/2015/01/09/how-to-make-recruiter-spam-useful-m…
sudonim · 2012-09-22
Yes, I think all employees involved is a huge win. In our company of 3, we do that. But one thing that's problematic from the customer's point of view, is:
"Who should I contact to solve my problem?"
The ideal experience in my opinion is a single contact point, with the authority and knowledge to solve every issue you have.
That's of course unrealistic, but I want to find a way to approximate that. The closest thing I've heard is Alla Klein:
http://code.dblock.org/alla-klein-a-fake-person-in-charge-of-customer-…