4 ms·

When you want to hire developers.

by freyr 10y ago

macintux 10y ago
Hiring good developers for Erlang is easy: just look for functional programmers. It is indeed hard to hire mediocre developers for Erlang: they stay away from FP.
- 010a 10y ago
  Great meme bro.
davidw 10y ago
The last place I worked, we built a system that included Erlang. When it was time to hire someone, we found a guy who was curious about Erlang, and although he didn't know it pat, he was a good hire, as he was a smart guy, hard worker, and curious not only about Erlang, but a lot of stuff. That's the kind of person you want to hire anyway, unless you are super crunched for time in getting someone up to speed.
im_down_w_otp 10y ago
Never had a problem finding or training great Erlang engineers, and even had a few cases where the absolute best of the candidates were only interested because they'd get to use Erlang. (shrug).
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
rdtsc 10y ago
> When you want to hire developers. When you want to hire good developers pick Erlang, Elixir, Rust, Haskell, ML, LISP. Because chances they went out of their way to learn the language as it is not taught in US universities in depth. They are probably curious, good learners and could probably learn or adapt to other new things thrown at them. I am at shop were we use Erlang and syntax has not phased new people that much. If typing . instead of ; is a big deal, then what are they doing to do when a netsplit hits or they have to understand other concurrency issues. I don't know, I find Erlang's syntax rather nice, if anything it tells my brain "this is not C anymore, don't think like C". Works for me, any way. There is Elixir of course if syntax is an issue. Elixir has other useful features as well but still runs on the same battle proven platform.
- ajmurmann 10y ago
  I've also found though that these languages attract primadonnas who care more about "attractive" code and getting to play with cutting edge technology that might not be ready for prime time yet than they care about providing business value. Edit: fixing typo. Pay -> play
  - rdtsc 10y ago
    Agreed. I've seen that too.
  - blub 10y ago
    Then Go should be in the list too. In fact any language that's trending is automatically in that list. The only languages that don't attract prima donnas are the "not hip" ones like Java, C++, C#, Perl, etc.
    - geodel 10y ago
      Not really. Considering Go does not offer features that PL theory enthusiasts love, it remains a boring language.
      - blub 10y ago
        I don't think it's about features, but rather a combination of fashion, chance and some other key element (such as author, supporting company, etc) that in addition to the technical merits lead to a piece of technology becoming cool and liked. Interestingly Go programmers have turned lack of features into a definining feature in itself and are proud of it. If you want to be oart of the in crowd you have to use that signal.
freyr 10y ago
To those replying with anecdotes about how you managed to hire or train an Erlang developer, you missed this part of the presentation: "Go is an answer to problems of scale at Google."
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

When you want to hire developers.

by freyr 10y ago

When you want to hire developers.

Hiring good developers for Erlang is easy: just look for functional programmers. It is indeed hard to hire mediocre developers for Erlang: they stay away from FP.

010a 10y ago
Great meme bro.

davidw 10y ago

The last place I worked, we built a system that included Erlang. When it was time to hire someone, we found a guy who was curious about Erlang, and although he didn't know it pat, he was a good hire, as he was a smart guy, hard worker, and curious not only about Erlang, but a lot of stuff. That's the kind of person you want to hire anyway, unless you are super crunched for time in getting someone up to speed.

im_down_w_otp 10y ago

Never had a problem finding or training great Erlang engineers, and even had a few cases where the absolute best of the candidates were only interested because they'd get to use Erlang. (shrug).

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

rdtsc 10y ago

> When you want to hire developers. When you want to hire good developers pick Erlang, Elixir, Rust, Haskell, ML, LISP. Because chances they went out of their way to learn the language as it is not taught in US universities in depth. They are probably curious, good learners and could probably learn or adapt to other new things thrown at them. I am at shop were we use Erlang and syntax has not phased new people that much. If typing . instead of ; is a big deal, then what are they doing to do when a netsplit hits or they have to understand other concurrency issues. I don't know, I find Erlang's syntax rather nice, if anything it tells my brain "this is not C anymore, don't think like C". Works for me, any way. There is Elixir of course if syntax is an issue. Elixir has other useful features as well but still runs on the same battle proven platform.

ajmurmann 10y ago
I've also found though that these languages attract primadonnas who care more about "attractive" code and getting to play with cutting edge technology that might not be ready for prime time yet than they care about providing business value. Edit: fixing typo. Pay -> play
- rdtsc 10y ago
  Agreed. I've seen that too.
- blub 10y ago
  Then Go should be in the list too. In fact any language that's trending is automatically in that list. The only languages that don't attract prima donnas are the "not hip" ones like Java, C++, C#, Perl, etc.
  - geodel 10y ago
    Not really. Considering Go does not offer features that PL theory enthusiasts love, it remains a boring language.
    - blub 10y ago
      I don't think it's about features, but rather a combination of fashion, chance and some other key element (such as author, supporting company, etc) that in addition to the technical merits lead to a piece of technology becoming cool and liked. Interestingly Go programmers have turned lack of features into a definining feature in itself and are proud of it. If you want to be oart of the in crowd you have to use that signal.

freyr 10y ago

To those replying with anecdotes about how you managed to hire or train an Erlang developer, you missed this part of the presentation: "Go is an answer to problems of scale at Google."

deleted 10y ago
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