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How Do You Find Programming Superstars?
Joe Ganley writes "You are a programming superstar, and you are looking for work. I recognize this happens relatively rarely, which is part of my problem. But stipulating that it happens, how do I, as a company looking to hire such people, connect with them? Put another way, how do you the programming superstar go about looking for a company that seems like one you'd like to work for? The company I work for is a great place to work; we only hire really great people, we work on hard, interesting problems, and we treat our employees well. We aren't worried about retention or even about how to entice people to work here once we've found them. The problem is simply finding them. The signal-to-noise ratio of the big places like Monster and Dice is terrible. We've had much better luck with (for example) the Joel on Software job boards, but that still doesn't generate enough volume." What methods have other people used to find the truly elite?
I'm right here.
Be Google.
to their obvious sense of humility, and only ask for mere "stars".
That, or go trawling through the strip-clubs near Boston.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
(Dodges ballistic vegetable matter)
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
You, sir - I take it - have never experienced the PopTart in it's exemplary and multitudinous glory!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
You have found me. How much is my salary?
Wouldn't that be sort?
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
Real programming superstars, usually love coding so much they take precautions so that they are not accidentally promoted to have management responsibilities like tracking vacation requests and authorizing the expense accounts. So they make sure their belts don't match their shoes, their pants, if and when they wear it, are never ironed. If they are forced to wear ties, they pair it with half sleeved shirts. They are the the programming superstars. But be prepared for huge number of false positives.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Word of mouth is an incredible tool. If someone is well known in the industry and truly a superstar, people will know who they are. If you want someone like that, you need to realize you'll have to pay for them. I haven't personally "looked for a job" in a long time. I have found a niche for myself, so people look for me.
At my last two places of employment (previous was contract and I am now full time), I was found by someone who knew my reputation. By contrast, I had a recruiter call me who had gotten my name from another recruiter friend of his. He called me and told me how they were in desperate need of a senior person who would set standards, mentor teams, etc. I had a great time laughing at him when he told me that they were offering a solid 40K less than what I was making at the time.
No. He's just the one who has principles.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
Next, ask them for their slashdot uid, and look at some of their posts, and their friends/foes.
;-)
Logged in comments are for latecomers to slashdot.
Two solutions based on current reality models would be either "Nerd Idol" or "Big Brother Nerd edition". The idea would be to pit these guys and gals together and see what develops. Sure it probably wouldn't get the same ratings as the current versions, but something has to be said for cult value ;)
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
What agency did you say you work for?
Techsystems?
Robert Half?
Spherion?
Aquent?
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Well, at least now you know your boss paid attention in MGMT 301.
I love stuff like "Must have 5 years of Java experience" -- 2 years after Java was released.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
In my experience, an additional prefix is added:
Commander in Chief Lord High Lead Senior Principle Engineer, should be the highest non-managerial position.
But they're so much fun to ponder in a non-riddle context.
"Why does a farmer have a wolf? How can a 5lb chicken eat a 50lb bag of grain? How is he able to prevent the wolf from eating the chicken when he's present?"
Can't be that smart.
be prepared for answers that make you think.
I did-like the riddle portion of an interview. Often given by people who thuink that are good at riddles.
Example you responses I have given":
"How man quarters would it take to fill this room"
4 (I had to explain this answer at the end of the interview. )
"How would you move MT. Fuji"
"Am I going to work at Microsoft?"
alternate answers:
"Hire David Copperfield"(This gets a laugh)
"Convince the boss guy who sold that project to fire his sales team"
"Spec out the task, come up with a rough number, 500 Billion, after it is about 'half way through' Use the "Managed 500 Billion dollar project" on my resume to get a higher paying job somewhere else.
Yes, I know the answer there looking for, but really who doesn't?
I just remembered one that really pissed off the person interviewing:
I can't believe I ahd forgotten theis.
You have a farmer and chiken and a fox, only two of which can cross the river, but the chicken and fox can't be together without the farms.
I picked up the phone, hit speaker, called a buddy of mine and had him put on his 9 year old son, who I repeated the question to and he answer in about 30 seconds
My friend and his wife where laughing hysterically.
After which I hung up, told them this was a great interview now I know for sure I never want to work here, and left.
The word "Livid" comes to mind when thinking of there reaction. speechless would be another.
One guy was literally sputtering....ah good times.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Yep, I remember talking to someone about Powerbuilder 5. They want 5 year experience, and it had only been out for one.
I mentioned that in the interview, and he said he had a stack of interviews with people the have over 5 years experience with power builder 5.
I said, "oh, I have no doubt those pieces of paper say that, but it has only been out for a year."
Then excused myself and left.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Hey, finding good algorithms is like looking in a box of chocolates for shrimp... as my momma always used to tell me... CompSci is as CompSci does...
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia