Another take on interviewing

Very nice posting here from Simon Johnson regarding the selection of candidates for programming jobs.

His blog doesn't allow comments, so I'll follow up here: The only real criticism I'd have of Simon's approach is that the list of desirable qualities in a  candidate is backwards. That is, it should read 

1. The person in front of you will complement your pre-existing team
2. The person in front of you can actually write a program
3. The person in front of you is smart

If the candidate won't complement your team it is of no interest whether or not they can program. Even if they are the semi–mythical 100x productive programmer (hint: those folks are not applying for your position). 

If they can't write a program (of the kind that your company finds valuable) it is of no interest how smart they are. Folk wisdom in many parts of the industry suggests that enough smart can outweigh any other shortfall in a programmer. This is only true in very, very limited and highly specific circumstances (hint: you are not in the business of writing hard real–time life–critical massively–parallel seven–nines embedded control software for the black hole at the centre of the galaxy).

If you can get along with them, and if they can code, smarter is preferable to dumber. Your only problem now is to find some way to recognise "smarter", which turns out to be very, very hard indeed.

Registration open for XP Day London 'O8

Registration for XPDay is now open. XPDay sells out each year, so please book now. We operate a waiting list once the conference is full but only a handful of places subsequently become available.

The full cost of the conference is £350 but the first 50 people to book get a special “Early Bird” price of £275.

The few programmed sessions are set, and we encourage registered attendees to think about the topics they'd like to see discussed in the Open Space sessions. Attendees have the option to prepare a 5 minute "lightening talk" to promote their preferred topics, and these will go into the Open Space topic selection..

I look forward to seeing you there.