

Things To Fix: Hiring Software Developers - toumhi
http://sparklewise.com/?p=462

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norbu09
it is funny to see that you go for a masters degree but want actual coders
that have experience. in my experience hireing developers you are on the wrong
track. if you want good coders in the mid cost tier you go for those guys that
dropped out of uni and actually did coding for a while compared to those that
did uni but never touched an editor. also, if you want good guys, think of
maing them. expecting to get only the good ones without investing into
education is a bit arrogant in my view. get the most promising ones and get
one really good senior guy who mentors the rest. a team of heros will never
get anything done ... they only fight for the best algorhythm :-)

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toumhi
Well first of all, I don't dictate the hiring strategy at my company. I try to
help in that department but i'm a developer myself. There is indeed an
emphasis on academic requirements but I think other successful companies
(google) have this bias. Management at my company tends to think that people
with no university are "too close to the code", meaning they don't have the
ability to abstract things.

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angdis
There is no easy solution to the problem, but I can tell you that if your
standards are already high and strict, adding yet more elaborate screens to
vett suitable candidates isn't going to do much more than create more work for
you.

The best way to get people is to network. Are you and your developers going to
conferences and being active in developer communities?

Perhaps de-emphasizing "php" and emphasizing hardcore functional descriptions
of the work you do might attract better people? In other words, is what you
really want a "php guy" or do you want a capable developer who knows the core
material. Can a competent front-end guy with demonstrated ability become
quickly productive in a php shop even if he hasn't work in php? I think so.

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toumhi
Yes, I think we're not active enough in developer communities in general.
Whereas facebook, 37 signals & co must have no problem finding software
developers, it's harder for companies that didn't make a name in the developer
community yet.

However, the focus of my blog post was more to identify what things a startup
could do to help software companies finding talent. Easing the workflow or
adding some screening steps are examples of what a startup could do to solve
this problem, which is a major one for tech companies and where a lot of money
is spent.

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wiseleo
I got fed up trying to hire team members quickly. It got me to the point that
I am working on a solution to that problem. It is too early to talk about it,
but it will kill the spam of irrelevant applications common to normal
freelance sites and provide real-time view into availability of talent pool.

I agree on de-emphasizing PHP in general. You want to know what framework that
person is comfortable with and why it's their method of choice.

Look for people from C# or Java or Python background. They can write PHP if
they have to.

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toumhi
thanks for the advice. And keep us posted on this project of yours, or I will
have to build something myself :-)

