What Sets You Apart?
Yesterday I thought I was going to write more about Windows Metro and what I like about it. Instead I have been distracted with a conversation I find more interesting…at least for the time being.
For the last couple of years I have been interviewing candidates for software development positions. Today I had my first experience with an individual having researched and developed transferable skills relevant to any modern programming language or framework.
In short, the individual was keenly aware of:
- SOLID principles of application development
- Software Development Patterns
- Continuous Integration Techniques, and supporting processes
A couple hours later I interviewed another individual with over 10 years experience. However, this individual could not communicate more than specific languages, APIs and frameworks they had utilized.
The first individual had used some of the specific software tools we used, but, because of their background understanding how and why different tools had been developed, I observed that they were a much superior candidate…even if they had used a completely different framework. Their response to a different tool was, “that fulfills this need in software development principles and utilizes these patterns in implementation. I’ve used or written similar tools for other projects.”
In contrast, the second individual only learned how to write code within the constraints of the framework their company had adopted. They could use Entity Framework, but had no idea about the value Entity Framework adds to an application. Their only response to a different tool would be, “I learn quickly.”
This experience left me with some questions:
- Was the first individual simply more advanced?
- Could the second individual be an asset? I hate to hire on a specific code base because I know that will change. I need someone that knows how to write software, not just someone who knows syntax.
- How could I accurately evaluate the second individual? I’m not interested in “trick” questions that someone learns over time. I want to know, can this person think logically, and break things up into useful, testable, reliable components?
- What causes an individual to seek the next level?
- Why is it so easy for developers to learn a syntax and think that is enough? Why don’t they want to really learn their craft?
Do you think you have some ideas, or even questions I haven’t asked? Would you like to have me review the SOLID principles again in future newsletters? Are you facing similar problems filling your open positions?
Please drop a note to btaylor@sswug.org with your response.
Cheers,
Ben
$$SWYNK$$
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