
Ask HN: Suggestions on helping socially awkward developer get a job? - montanaland
Hi All,<p>I currently volunteer at a software engineering apprentice program where we take folks who have recently graduated from college, coding bootcamps, and even self taugh folks to give them real world experiences by both giving them a real project for a real client and teaching them software engineering principles. We&#x27;ve been around for about 2 years now and have a 90% job placement rate. Our developers that do get jobs, usually get it within 6-12 months into the apprenticeship program.<p>However, I have one developer who&#x27;s been with us for the entire two years and he still has not received a job offer yet. He is hands down one of our most talented and productive developers. He&#x27;s even lead a few projects. Whenever he goes to interviews, he crushes the technical challenges, questions, and brain teasers. When it comes to the &quot;behavioral round&quot;, every single recruiter will tell him he&#x27;s not a right fit for the team. He is definitely an awkward person, but not any more awkward than any other weird developers I&#x27;ve worked with in the past. Most of his personality quirks revolve around taking some things too literal and going off on tangents from certain conversation points. I can totally see this being an annoying quirk to deal with, but I feel his talent way outway his weirdness.<p>Is there anything you would suggest he should start trying? I would really like to see him progress with his career and have a job that he deserves.
======
jdc
I can relate to this a bit and can suggest a couple of things:

First, get him to talk less -- at least until he's more familiar with the
people around.

Second, make him aware that people see him as peculiar. This is probably a 2nd
order effect of what makes him so technically brilliant, but he can prepare
his partners in conversation by saying that he is "very technically minded"
like Spock". People will generally be much more comfortable interacting with
him having this expectation set early on.

------
gregjor
Personal skills and good communication ultimately count for more in any team
environment. Maybe suggest the awkward person get some coaching, attend
Toastmasters, something like that. Regardless of technical skill, no manager
or team wants to add someone who is hard to communicate or work with. Team
cooperation and harmony are first-order drivers of productivity, much more
than technical skills.

------
anoncoward111
Wow, that's really disheartening and resonates with me personally. I think it
is a disgusting inefficiency of our economy that hiring is still a high-school
popularity contest rather than a judgment of merit.

I worked a sales job for 5 years that I acquired through a University career
fare. After 5 years, my team and I were fired for political reasons, because
another manager and his team wanted to assume ownership of our customer base
and product line (large corporations do this).

Over the next 9 months of sales interviews, I was denied from about 20 face to
face interviews with absolutely no explanation as to what I was doing wrong.

It wasn't a failed background check or anything blatant-- middle managers
repeatedly denied me round after round.

It wasn't until I took an interview with the Founder/CEO of a 5 person firm
that I was immediately hired on the spot and praised for my sales acumen and
personality. Wtf??

My point here is that it's not the fault of your candidate-- it's the fault of
the people you are putting him in front of.

Barrage him with simulated behavioral interviews. Coach him on how to be more
"likable and normal" (yuck).

But ultimately, once you've optimized for those things... get him in front of
better people who are deliberately and specifically looking for talent, not
sociability.

------
cimmanom
How about running mock interviews with him? That way you can see exactly
what's tripping him up and he can get quick feedback.

