It's not hard to find people who claim to possess those skills. It is hard to find people who are proficient in them, and exceedingly difficult to find people w

It's not hard to find people who claim to possess those skills. It is hard to find people who are proficient in them, and exceedingly difficult to find people who are very good at them. If you're hiring, and you live in a metro area, and you don't know any hackers yourself; then I would suggest frequenting some user groups in your area to get to know some of the people there. People who go to user groups are far more likely to be good developers. In fact, anyone who does programming related stuff in their free time is likely going to be much stronger than someone who just does it for the check. If you're not hiring and are instead thinking about getting into the industry, then there's a corollary somewhere in my second paragraph for you.