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One of the things to consider is that for many Wall Street jobs, it's tough to get in, and the hours are awful, but it's not an IQ test. If you hire someone wi

One of the things to consider is that for many Wall Street jobs, it's tough to get in, and the hours are awful, but it's not an IQ test. If you hire someone with 120 IQ instead of 135 at a software firm, you might suffer. For banking analysts, 120 IQ is enough. This is why other things get considered. And as a recruiter, if you can help an old friend get in, you score some points in your community, and you know they'll be loyal for it. This isn't defending the practice, I'm just explaining it. There are lots of negative side effects. (Less diversity of thought, gender discrimination, etc)

hmsimha 13y ago
Has there been any correlation drawn between IQ and performance in a software firm?
- yetanotherphd 13y ago
  It's safe to assume that most opinions posted here don't have empirical evidence for them. I think you need some basis for demanding evidence, unless you are going to post the same for every single other post that lacks evidence for their claims. Which might get boring for you pretty quick.
- mathattack 13y ago
  This is not scientific research, but many folks quote Joel's article on Smart, Get's Stuff Done. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000073.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000073.html Steve McConnell reported on the 10x phenomenon, but again it's not so rigorous that it could pass a Physics journal. http://www.construx.com/10x_Software_Development/Measuring_Productivity_of_Individual_Programmers/ http://www.construx.com/10x_Software_Development/Measuring_P... Now venturing into the realm of survey design... If you were to ask 100 technical programming manager, and 100 banking vice presidents, "Would you be more likely to hire and promote your intern if they had 10 more IQ points, or put in 10 more hours per week" you would get a statistically significant different answer. This is based on a small sample size of personal observations across both industries. In finance and banking there gets to be a point where people are "smart enough". There is enough complexity in software that you can always extract more value from more intelligence.

hmsimha 13y ago

Has there been any correlation drawn between IQ and performance in a software firm?

yetanotherphd 13y ago
It's safe to assume that most opinions posted here don't have empirical evidence for them. I think you need some basis for demanding evidence, unless you are going to post the same for every single other post that lacks evidence for their claims. Which might get boring for you pretty quick.
mathattack 13y ago
This is not scientific research, but many folks quote Joel's article on Smart, Get's Stuff Done. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000073.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000073.html Steve McConnell reported on the 10x phenomenon, but again it's not so rigorous that it could pass a Physics journal. http://www.construx.com/10x_Software_Development/Measuring_Productivity_of_Individual_Programmers/ http://www.construx.com/10x_Software_Development/Measuring_P... Now venturing into the realm of survey design... If you were to ask 100 technical programming manager, and 100 banking vice presidents, "Would you be more likely to hire and promote your intern if they had 10 more IQ points, or put in 10 more hours per week" you would get a statistically significant different answer. This is based on a small sample size of personal observations across both industries. In finance and banking there gets to be a point where people are "smart enough". There is enough complexity in software that you can always extract more value from more intelligence.