How to recognise a good programmer
This is the title of a very interesting article that I ran into a few days ago when I was searching for a wordpress plugin. The article is about the incapability of managers and bussiness men to recognise good programmers when they are to hire one. Also advices are given how to spot the good ones.
Personally, I identify myself with 95% of what the author stated and I think that every programmer must have at least half of the good points that the author pointed out. Of course, there are certain exceptions but they occur from a diferent working environment to another.
The only thing that I disagree is the fact that a programmer who uses bleeding-edge technology must be better seen as a future employee. NOT really. Bleeding-edge technology are not necesarily good. In fact they are good, but it all comes down to the phrase “the right tool for the right job”.
I picked out the essential points here:
Positive indicators:
- Passionate about technology
- Programs as a hobby
- Will talk your ear off on a technical subject if encouraged
- Significant (and often numerous) personal side-projects over the years
- Learns new technologies on his/her own
- Opinionated about which technologies are better for various usages
- Very uncomfortable about the idea of working with a technology he doesn’t believe to be “right”
- Clearly smart, can have great conversations on a variety of topics
- Started programming long before university/work
- Has some hidden “icebergs”, large personal projects under the CV radar
- Knowledge of a large variety of unrelated technologies (may not be on CV)
Negative indicators:
- Programming is a day job
- Don’t really want to “talk shop”, even when encouraged to
- Learns new technologies in company-sponsored courses
- Happy to work with whatever technology you’ve picked, “all technologies are good”
- Doesn’t seem too smart
- Started programming at university
- All programming experience is on the CV
- Focused mainly on one or two technology stacks (e.g. everything to do with developing a java application), with no experience outside of it
