People like Joel spolsky or Jon skeet when talking about hiring always list passion as the topmost priority but is it that easy? How can one identify a passionate programmer in one
When in the hiring process are you trying to identify passion? Are you talking about recognizing it when reading a CV or during an interview?
If it's an interview I'd say it's not that difficult. If you can get them to open up an start talking candidly it's pretty easy to see how passionate they are and what they are passionate about.
If you mean when reading a CV then it is a lot more difficult. There are things that may be indications but they are not entirely reliable. Although I don't know how much you should be trying to judge passion using a CV, doing it in person is a lot better.
Oh no no! I am not into hiring, I am an undergrad. This question spurs put of a conversation I had. My idea of passionate programmer was anyone who was familiar with software development concepts like automated testing or aource control.
Though, the guy was familiar with such stuff he showed me no sign of what I fwlt a passion.
My personal view is that passion is completely independent of knowledge. Now normally people who are passionate people do have strong knowledge because they seek it out. But there are a lot of people who have a lot of knowledge who are not passionate at all. So I think that you can't judge passion based on what someone knows.
You can identify passion in a programmer by seeing if the person is eager to create more efficient code whilst always ready to optimise even further. Pushing the boundaries is one of the most important factors and this can be found out by simply asking, "what would you like to achieve in the next 12 months?"
If it's an interview I'd say it's not that difficult. If you can get them to open up an start talking candidly it's pretty easy to see how passionate they are and what they are passionate about.
If you mean when reading a CV then it is a lot more difficult. There are things that may be indications but they are not entirely reliable. Although I don't know how much you should be trying to judge passion using a CV, doing it in person is a lot better.