6 ms·

Advice about hiring programmers

7 points by katie123 17y ago

Hello all, In my job at the moment I'm going to be looking to hire a software developer to work on our project. However, we currently don't have any programmers in the company so doing any testing of how candidates write code and the quality of said code is going to be nigh on impossible to judge. The most I've worked with are scripting languages and this job will require C/C++. Does anyone have any advice on how to go about testing in a situation like this? Feedback from both hiring/applying sides of the process would be really appreciated. Thank you!

niyazpk 17y ago
If you are not much into programming, get help from any of your technically inclined friends who can identify good programmers. Let them interview the candidates for you. Also, ask them to refer good programmers they know.
- hga 17y ago
  Exactly; hire someone who has a clue to minimally test their knowledge, e.g. have them write code on a white board to reverse a linked list (you'd be surprised at how many people with apparently good resumes can't program their way out of a paper bag).
gvb 17y ago
Ask the candidate if he has contribute to an open source project. If the candidate has contributed (preferably non-trivially), it means that his code has been vetted by some very experienced software engineers and found acceptable. As well as the code vetting-by-proxy, you should be able to judge his "passion" (the current evaluation buzzword) by discussing what the projects were and what he did on them. You don't need to know what he is talking about in detail, although that would be good, in order to get a feel for his passion level for programming. If the candidate has not contributed to an open source project, this test is inconclusive.
- katie123 17y ago
  That's a really good suggestion, definitely one for the interview process. Thank you.
hga 17y ago
You might use Joel's test (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html) in reverse, e.g. if setting up software configuration management isn't one of their first priorities you probably don't want them as your first programmer. If they don't care about having a quiet place to work, they probably don't care very much about their productivity or the quality of their work. And so on. Before the interview, ask them to bring in code and documentation (e.g. design) samples. This too might be inconclusive (I had to arrange with some companies that I worked for to allow this, in other cases the company had died and I got the rights from who they devolved to), but it's a good sign if they have a polished portfolio. Ask them to attack a design problem in a domain you both have some experience with and look for good design and problem solving skills.
katie123 17y ago
Thanks for the comments everyone, they've been really useful. I think it's going to be a combination of factors we can judge as non-programmers in the first round (problem solving, projects already worked on etc. and the reverse Joel!) with some expert guidance to judge technical ability in the second. And if you've heard of us in the next year or so, we've got the right person and I'll buy you all a beer :-)

7 points by katie123 17y ago

niyazpk 17y ago

If you are not much into programming, get help from any of your technically inclined friends who can identify good programmers. Let them interview the candidates for you. Also, ask them to refer good programmers they know.

hga 17y ago
Exactly; hire someone who has a clue to minimally test their knowledge, e.g. have them write code on a white board to reverse a linked list (you'd be surprised at how many people with apparently good resumes can't program their way out of a paper bag).

gvb 17y ago

Ask the candidate if he has contribute to an open source project. If the candidate has contributed (preferably non-trivially), it means that his code has been vetted by some very experienced software engineers and found acceptable. As well as the code vetting-by-proxy, you should be able to judge his "passion" (the current evaluation buzzword) by discussing what the projects were and what he did on them. You don't need to know what he is talking about in detail, although that would be good, in order to get a feel for his passion level for programming. If the candidate has not contributed to an open source project, this test is inconclusive.

katie123 17y ago
That's a really good suggestion, definitely one for the interview process. Thank you.

hga 17y ago

You might use Joel's test (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html) in reverse, e.g. if setting up software configuration management isn't one of their first priorities you probably don't want them as your first programmer. If they don't care about having a quiet place to work, they probably don't care very much about their productivity or the quality of their work. And so on. Before the interview, ask them to bring in code and documentation (e.g. design) samples. This too might be inconclusive (I had to arrange with some companies that I worked for to allow this, in other cases the company had died and I got the rights from who they devolved to), but it's a good sign if they have a polished portfolio. Ask them to attack a design problem in a domain you both have some experience with and look for good design and problem solving skills.

katie123 17y ago

Thanks for the comments everyone, they've been really useful. I think it's going to be a combination of factors we can judge as non-programmers in the first round (problem solving, projects already worked on etc. and the reverse Joel!) with some expert guidance to judge technical ability in the second. And if you've heard of us in the next year or so, we've got the right person and I'll buy you all a beer :-)