Re:How to judge raw smarts of a developer candidate?
by karmakaze on Friday June 26, 2020 @04:05PM
(#23656348)
I have had similar success stories and a few that accidentally came through the process.
It helps if you can be more specific and not use loaded terms like 'intelligence'. If it was a single metric placements would not be so complex.
Here are some things I look for: intrinsic interest/self-starting, logical reasoning, high-level or conceptual thought processes, abstract or mathematical mental models (e.g. non-procedural thinking), open-mindedness/lateral thinking/connecting non-adjacent knowns, algebraic/symbolic representations and manipulation.
That doesn't even make up half though. A larger part is more about how they actually go about working day-to-day. Are they easy to talk/disagree with? Show continued interest in learning or content to apply what they know? Can work on longer projects to completion? Do the necessary boring stuff.
A good team needs mostly the latter qualities and a few members that can sometimes be the 'cooks' in the restaurant.
It helps if you can be more specific and not use loaded terms like 'intelligence'. If it was a single metric placements would not be so complex.
Here are some things I look for: intrinsic interest/self-starting, logical reasoning, high-level or conceptual thought processes, abstract or mathematical mental models (e.g. non-procedural thinking), open-mindedness/lateral thinking/connecting non-adjacent knowns, algebraic/symbolic representations and manipulation.
That doesn't even make up half though. A larger part is more about how they actually go about working day-to-day. Are they easy to talk/disagree with? Show continued interest in learning or content to apply what they know? Can work on longer projects to completion? Do the necessary boring stuff.
A good team needs mostly the latter qualities and a few members that can sometimes be the 'cooks' in the restaurant.