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Hiring the right people is a hard problem. The standard approaches, hiring software developers on the basis of code scribbled on white-boards or a series of na

Hiring the right people is a hard problem. The standard approaches, hiring software developers on the basis of code scribbled on white-boards or a series of narrow technical questions, are bad. Instead, I favor three different approaches, depending on the level of the position: We should hire new grads based on internship performance. We should hire senior developers based of their records of design, implementation, and leadership. We should hire mid-tier developers based on code review, typically based on open-source code. More here: http://short-sharp.blogspot.ca/2013/04/stop-white-board-coding.html http://short-sharp.blogspot.ca/2013/04/stop-white-board-codi...

fnbr 12y ago
How do you hire interns?
- johan_larson 12y ago
  Code review, if possible. Students of computer science write a lot of code for assignments and projects; I want to see some of it. Obviously, it makes sense to judge the students more leniently than I would judge finished professionals. Grades in relevant courses are also a useful signal. If a student insists that he has no code suitable for review, fall back to coding problems, since coding under unrealistic conditions is better than no coding at all. But in such cases I have to wonder what the heck the student has been submitting for assignments and projects, so that's definitely a minus.
  - forsaken 12y ago
    A reminder not to refer to programmers as "he" by default. A bit more here: http://alexgaynor.net/2013/nov/30/gender-neutral-language-faq/ http://alexgaynor.net/2013/nov/30/gender-neutral-language-fa...
- BerislavLopac 12y ago
  By seeing how good coffee they make?
nawitus 12y ago
>We should hire mid-tier developers based on code review, typically based on open-source code. What about developers who push non-polished projects to GitHub? Can the candidate specify which project you're reviewing?
- johan_larson 12y ago
  Sure. If they want me to review specific projects or even specific files, that's fine. I understand there is quite a bit of code out there that is truly experimental, and therefore not up to production standards. It's also OK for the candidate to tell me that the reviewed code has some problems, which lets us discuss what should be done to fix it.
skkbits 12y ago
>"We should hire mid-tier developers based on code review, typically based on open-source code." While I agree with sentiment this is not always possible. Company I work for, strongly "discourages" to sharing any code outside organization and also open source contributions. Its not hard and fast requirement but recommendation to avoid code leak and sort of saying we might re-consider your job in passive language. I know tons of companies right in SF who have "ultimate secrecy" for coding and also what they can contribute to open source. There is no possible one solution for this problem.

fnbr 12y ago

How do you hire interns?

johan_larson 12y ago
Code review, if possible. Students of computer science write a lot of code for assignments and projects; I want to see some of it. Obviously, it makes sense to judge the students more leniently than I would judge finished professionals. Grades in relevant courses are also a useful signal. If a student insists that he has no code suitable for review, fall back to coding problems, since coding under unrealistic conditions is better than no coding at all. But in such cases I have to wonder what the heck the student has been submitting for assignments and projects, so that's definitely a minus.
- forsaken 12y ago
  A reminder not to refer to programmers as "he" by default. A bit more here: http://alexgaynor.net/2013/nov/30/gender-neutral-language-faq/ http://alexgaynor.net/2013/nov/30/gender-neutral-language-fa...
BerislavLopac 12y ago
By seeing how good coffee they make?

nawitus 12y ago

>We should hire mid-tier developers based on code review, typically based on open-source code. What about developers who push non-polished projects to GitHub? Can the candidate specify which project you're reviewing?

johan_larson 12y ago
Sure. If they want me to review specific projects or even specific files, that's fine. I understand there is quite a bit of code out there that is truly experimental, and therefore not up to production standards. It's also OK for the candidate to tell me that the reviewed code has some problems, which lets us discuss what should be done to fix it.

skkbits 12y ago

>"We should hire mid-tier developers based on code review, typically based on open-source code." While I agree with sentiment this is not always possible. Company I work for, strongly "discourages" to sharing any code outside organization and also open source contributions. Its not hard and fast requirement but recommendation to avoid code leak and sort of saying we might re-consider your job in passive language. I know tons of companies right in SF who have "ultimate secrecy" for coding and also what they can contribute to open source. There is no possible one solution for this problem.