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This goes back to the idea that there is a "fungible" programmer that is universally substitutable between companies. In some companies, I am a highly valuable

This goes back to the idea that there is a "fungible" programmer that is universally substitutable between companies. In some companies, I am a highly valuable addition. In others, I am mediocre at best. I think of this like a sports team - a highly performing sports team both needs people of the highest skill and complementary role players that are the best at a valuable skill even if they aren't the best at every skill. It would be great if every team member was excellent at code craft, debugging, collaborating between teams, researching new third party solutions, and whipping up prototypes, but your team may not need all of those. I don't like the term "culture fit" because it is a proxy for people who are already on the team, and often gets confused for "white, male, and likes to drink with coworkers." That said, I highly value "work style fit" and "team need." Are you running into code quality problems? Find someone who thinks about code quality. Do you need someone who can get a prototype to sales quickly to close a deal? That's a skill, and it's not a generalized skill. All of the cases above can be valuable, but only contextually. Figure out what your team needs first, then craft your interview process around that. (As for me? I have been in management for a while, but I am at my best in developing high functioning teams, collaborating between teams to solve larger problems, and crafting high quality solutions. I am not at my best in deep debugging sessions and quick prototyping. If it isn't my own startup, I might not be the ideal choice for employee 1-5. I may be the person you bring in when your team is expanding rapidly and you're running into scaling issues.)

streetcat1 7y ago
So if you are not good at coding/recent tech, how do you know if a given solution is high quality or not?
- ebiester 7y ago
  I am good at coding. I am a good enough debugger to get through most cases. I am good enough at getting a prototype out. However, if you are looking for someone to sort out some deep and ugly multithreading issues, there are people who are better at it than me. If you are running an agency trying to drum up work, there are people better than me. If you have a codebase with no tests and everyone is afraid to touch it, you want me. If you have three teams that are trying to sort out a problem but nobody will dig in, talk with everyone, and sort out the technical issue, you want me. That’s the difference. Now, as for determining high quality code without having that basis, I would start with Robert Martin’s book “clean code.” At the very least, it can teach the basics of understanding a code sample. However, it can be a difficult problem. I might think about a consultant to judge those and use behavioral interviews to judge the rest.

streetcat1 7y ago

So if you are not good at coding/recent tech, how do you know if a given solution is high quality or not?

ebiester 7y ago
I am good at coding. I am a good enough debugger to get through most cases. I am good enough at getting a prototype out. However, if you are looking for someone to sort out some deep and ugly multithreading issues, there are people who are better at it than me. If you are running an agency trying to drum up work, there are people better than me. If you have a codebase with no tests and everyone is afraid to touch it, you want me. If you have three teams that are trying to sort out a problem but nobody will dig in, talk with everyone, and sort out the technical issue, you want me. That’s the difference. Now, as for determining high quality code without having that basis, I would start with Robert Martin’s book “clean code.” At the very least, it can teach the basics of understanding a code sample. However, it can be a difficult problem. I might think about a consultant to judge those and use behavioral interviews to judge the rest.