Re:How to hire a programmer when you're not a programmer
by bostonvaulter2 on Tuesday October 26, 2010 @05:57PM
(#1836289)
> What computing blogs / magazines do you read?
Would Hacker News/Proggit be an acceptable answer?
Re:How to hire a programmer when you're not a programmer
by chrisaycock on Tuesday October 26, 2010 @06:12PM
(#1836350)
Of course, so long as it's in conjunction with a few direct sources.
Re:How to hire a programmer when you're not a programmer
by cookiecaper on Tuesday October 26, 2010 @06:28PM
(#1836402)
>What computing blogs / magazines do you read?
Someone asked me this fairly recently, but he said "what technical stuff do you read?", which I had a pretty hard time answering because I think my definition of technical was much stricter than his. He mentioned that I had written about Joel Spolsky, for instance, but Joel is not really a technical writer -- he writes about business, etc. within his technical company.
I ended up just saying "whatever's on Hacker News, basically", because I don't really follow any blogs regularly any more. I should have said Lambda the Ultimate, I guess; that used to be on my feed reader (still is, but I never use feed reader anymore).
Re:How to hire a programmer when you're not a programmer
by chrisaycock on Tuesday October 26, 2010 @06:34PM
(#1836421)
I agree with you about business blogs. SvN is the same way. I find the best technical articles in ACM and IEEE publications.
What computing blogs / magazines do you read? - To see if he keeps up-to-date on trends in technology.
What are some of your favourite languages? What do you code with in your free time? - Not just to gauge passion, but also to see how diverse his toolset is. Someone who knows Java, Clojure and Matlab is well-rounded. Someone who knows only Java, C++ and C# is not.
What do you dislike about your favourite language? - To make sure the guy isn't a religious nut, since we probably don't use his favourite.
Who are the key people in your field? - For a given topic the developer is passionate about, there should be someone whose papers he's read plenty of times.
Why did you leave your last job? - Pretty standard one, but always key.
I also require a cover letter of everyone who applies, plus I tell recruiters that I want the resume in LaTeX. In addition to gauging writing skills and technical adeptness, those two requirements are a pretty good filter against spray-and-pray applicants.