Re:Two out of three developers are self-taught, and other tr...
by georgefrick on Thursday March 31, 2016 @04:39PM
(#11400404)
It actually bugs me every once in a while when I do an interview and I know the guy can code but he just can't articulate anything. It's like he's locked in there and he would be fine if I slipped tasks under his door in an envelope. But to your point it just doesn't work that way and those people get turned away not because they didn't have the technical skills, but because they demonstrated they couldn't be effective beyond the IDE.
The other day I finally cut a guy off and said, "Yes, sure, you aren't good with terms and explanations. How do you have technical discussions with other developers? What do you do in code reviews?". Deer meet Headlights.
I also realize your point is beyond technical communication, and you are right on that too.
The more interesting work goes to programmers who can communicate. 90% of programmers can get the job done; I want someone who can articulate what he's built, how it can be improved, when it will be ready, what needs to be changed, what we're doing wrong, etc.
That's what all those classes you don't care about are for: giving you perspective outside heads-down coding that can be outsourced for $50/day.
You'd be amazed at how many people I have interviewed that simply either can't, or won't talk (from the interviewer's perspective they are the same thing!).
Again: most halfway decent programmers are adequate. The great ones are great not because they can write code, but because they can explain how that code works to someone else and, vice versa, they can understand someone who is trying to explain why the code doesn't do what they need. That is worth paying for.