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I've worked 15 years as a programmer, architect, boss... I have one year of college. I found that once you hit 3-5 years of experience, getting a job was never

I've worked 15 years as a programmer, architect, boss... I have one year of college. I found that once you hit 3-5 years of experience, getting a job was never hard. I also found that people who are mostly self-taught and self-motivated are almost always better hires than people with a 4 year degree.

RosieA 12y ago
We have discussions all the time with CTOs and recruiters about what gets a dev hired. We always cycle back to the fact that its really their personal projects that win the day. Would you agree? When you're hiring a developer is it the time/certification/companies he worked for? Or his own stuff? I know that's a bit of a shallow look at hiring which is way more in-depth, but would love your thoughts on that point.
- silverbax88 12y ago
  I can't really speak for everyone, but I don't give a damn about a developers' StackOverflow profile or their personal projects. Certification looks good on the company resume, but doesn't mean a person can code at all. Bear in mind that there are very few really good programmers. There are even less 'great' programmers. Programmers are just like any other group of people - they must fit together to be a strong team. Some people are better leaders, while others are better at banging out back end code. It's a cliched metaphor, but putting together a software dev team is not much different than putting together a pro football team - you won't win with 50 quarterbacks, even if they are all Pro Bowlers. When I interview, I am looking for people who can get things done, but in the context of a team, and I am really looking for how they think. I need to know how they solve problems, are they self-motivated to produce great software, how dependable they are, and can I count on them under pressure. People under pressure is the key aspect that is the hardest to solve when hiring, or when finding a business partner, or anything where there is a shared responsibility and goals. When I interview, I don't really ask questions that someone could answer by doing a Google search. I want to know if they will actually do that Google search and move on.

RosieA 12y ago

We have discussions all the time with CTOs and recruiters about what gets a dev hired. We always cycle back to the fact that its really their personal projects that win the day. Would you agree? When you're hiring a developer is it the time/certification/companies he worked for? Or his own stuff? I know that's a bit of a shallow look at hiring which is way more in-depth, but would love your thoughts on that point.

silverbax88 12y ago
I can't really speak for everyone, but I don't give a damn about a developers' StackOverflow profile or their personal projects. Certification looks good on the company resume, but doesn't mean a person can code at all. Bear in mind that there are very few really good programmers. There are even less 'great' programmers. Programmers are just like any other group of people - they must fit together to be a strong team. Some people are better leaders, while others are better at banging out back end code. It's a cliched metaphor, but putting together a software dev team is not much different than putting together a pro football team - you won't win with 50 quarterbacks, even if they are all Pro Bowlers. When I interview, I am looking for people who can get things done, but in the context of a team, and I am really looking for how they think. I need to know how they solve problems, are they self-motivated to produce great software, how dependable they are, and can I count on them under pressure. People under pressure is the key aspect that is the hardest to solve when hiring, or when finding a business partner, or anything where there is a shared responsibility and goals. When I interview, I don't really ask questions that someone could answer by doing a Google search. I want to know if they will actually do that Google search and move on.