Every developer at MailChimp has a unique route that brought them to our team. Like Eric, who built a Blackberry app for MailChimp in his spare time, or Allison, a front-end developer for our marketing team who recently moved over to the engineering side. Regardless of our background and experience, we all submitted a code sample (either directly or indirectly) before we were hired.

Code samples expose how you solve complex problems in a reasonable manner, so that others can follow behind (that's my definition of a developer). I've been in plenty of interviews where teams took turns stumping me with obscure syntax questions or timed whiteboard code quizzes, and I never felt like it was a true measure of my ability, talent, or potential. It was refreshing to submit 400 lines of code to MailChimp, get a simple response back, and spend the rest of the hiring process focusing on whether or not MailChimp and I were a good fit.

Here's a little more detail about why code samples are so important to us and what makes a good one.

What code should you submit?

When people ask me what kind of code they should submit, my answer is always "Code that makes you proud." That said, we're looking for something that can be reviewed in a sitting, like a class or script (hello world < your code sample < open source apache project). We also look for code that's DRY, flat, clean, and explains itself well through naming and documentation.

A level of consistency in your variable and method naming and how quickly we can review it makes a huge difference. How your code fits into a larger application can make a difference as well, so add some documentation on the top to help us put your sample in context. If our response is “that was a cool way to solve that problem,” then you've submitted a great code sample from our perspective.

Getting your code to us

If this got your wheels turning and you want to learn more about our team, reach out to us! We host a lot of events and meetups in Atlanta (the whole team works out of our Atlanta office), so swing by say hi. You can also apply online for our open positions. Even if we don't have any "official" engineering/developer positions open, we're always looking for great people to join our team. If nothing on our jobs page interests you, reaching out to our recruiting team is your best bet.

If you're a Georgia Tech student, swing by the career fair and meet us, tell us about what you're working on, and—you guessed it—bring a code sample. You can also send us an email via Mandrill to show off your skills.