

Ask HN: Three choices – who do you hire? - programmar

So your boss offers you a choice of which prospective employee to hire. He and HR have narrowed the pile down to just three choices. Only one can be hired, the rest become homeless, contract TB, infect people go ride the bus, and die.<p>1: A white woman, fresh out of college with a bachelors in CompSci and a masters in Gender Studies. She won the Leah Culver Award for being a strong programmer woman who don&#x27;t need no code three years in a row.<p>2: A fresh off the boat Indian. Claims proficiency in Python 4, Windows 9, C++15, and Verilog. Resume shows he has twelve degrees from a university whose name you can&#x27;t pronounce.<p>3:  The Brogrammer. He&#x27;s worked at 23 failed startups and is an expert in Ruby on Rails. He works 80+ hours a week, but is still not very productive, due to fucking around most of the time.<p>Which do you choose, and why?
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pedalpete
I remove any description that is not specifically related to the job.

You're left with

1\. Fresh out of college bachelor in compSci and masters in Gender Studies.
Won the Leah Culver award for being a strong programmer (no idea what "don't
need no code" means).

2\. A person who has 12 University degrees, and is proficient in languages and
software which is yet to be released, suspect.

3\. An expert Rails developer who has been through the ringer with multiple
start-ups and knows what start-ups are all about. (You likely have no way of
knowing he works 80+ hours per week, unless he said so, and is very
unproductive due to fucking around most of the time).

Now, clearly, you've loaded this question so much to the point that there is
only one choice, and that is the 'white woman'. But if she were a 'black
woman', an Indian man, a house cat, make any difference to your question? She
is the ONLY choice of the choices you provided because based on the
information you've given, she is the only one who can apparently code.

Now, give the Indian person proficiency in actual languages and apps, and
remove the fact that the brogrammer is unproductive, and see where you go with
that?

Now you've got a decision to make. What is it? Well, you can't know, which is
why you have to interview them, see who's the best fit for the culture, etc.
etc.

If this is an actual situation, and your boss picked anybody other than the
first choice, and you're wondering why, stop wondering why, and maybe start
making a move to a better place to work.

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olgeni
You hire all three and use them to replace HR - it just cannot get any worse
than that, so improvement is guaranteed.

