Being the only programmer at work I receive many inquiries into how people should get started in a programming career. The first question I ask them is, "Do you write programs at home or do you code for fun?" I have never received a 'yes' answer to this question. I then proceed to ask why these people want to get into programming, mos...
If you were to hire a javascript developer would you expect them to know jquery? I just started using stack overflow this week and knew that jquery led the pack, but didn't realize the extent of it until I noticed that MooTools (my favorite) has 59 questions while jquery has over 4000. (of course, a good statistician could attribute jqu...
We are hiring a UX consultant, had a broadstrokes session with the company, liked their work, think the candidates are ok and now want a more concentrated interview with the specific UX consultant that will be embedded into the scrum team. What questions should be asking that could weed out any dead weight candidates. Thanks. ...
What questions would you ask a candidate applying for a software project or development manager position? Please could you submit one question per answer (with multiple answer if necessary) or a sequence of related questions. This way eventually all questions will get ordered by how good we all think they are. Please also provide a sho...
I am a new graduate (in the last four or five months), and like many in my situation, I'm having serious difficulty finding a job. I've got a good degree (BEng in Comp. Eng.) from a top-three school in my non-American English-speaking Western country, a pretty good resume, and a terrible GPA. I've been making contacts (applying, person...
My understanding is that asking for a work sample is a good way to determine if someone has the skillset you are looking for, as some people just interview well. So I want to ask potential developers to write some sample code for me. I'm looking for ideas on what kind of small project would be something they could do in an hour or two, ...
I'm an IT Professional/Entrepreneur with a lot of experience on this side of the industry, but I'm not a programmer by any means. Being that we're on different sides of the same industry, often non-technical people come to me with projects for their companies or organizations that require software development...but I hesitate to take th...
Coming from an IT background, I've been involved with software projects but I'm not a programmer. One of my biggest challenges is that having a lot of experience in IT, people often turn to me to manage projects that include software development. The projects are usually outsourced and there isnt a budget for a full time architect or P...
I come from an IT/business background, but I'm not a programmer. Recently, I've been aproached to head up projects that require software development. On the same token, this has led me to spend more time developing business ideas that revolve around a developed software or web development. Because I'm not a programmer, but am technica...
Recently, I've been trying to make the switch from games programming to embedded programming. (Out of necessity, not choice). To me, my experience in low-level engine and graphics programming on consoles is a perfect fit for embedded systems. However, I've found IT recruiters seem to be befuddled about the commonality between the two (i...
Want to hire a developer to develop a web app (or SaaS) that allows teachers to create and sell their courses online through the site. Much like ChalkBoard.com What skills should I be looking for in such a developer? Also, what kind of hosting service should I look for since this app would need to be able to handle many concurrent user...
I have seen people who are excellent with technical knowledge and usually ace through interviews due to that but they lack the commitment. Problem here is there is no way of identifying this flaw until its too late. What are the things that can be done to identify the problem before its too late? ...
Would you hire a developer who doesn't know how to use regular expressions? That's about it, please state your reasons for or against, and feel free to give different answers for different situations. Just try to break up your answers if you can. ...
I've seen some blog posts about software developers just being hired learning a new language so that they can build their companies' next program. Personally, I've always believed that developers should already know the language since they're new to the company (and know what language the program will need). To expand on that, it's not l...
So I'm leaving my job for a role at another company and before I leave I have one last task: I must hire a replacement for myself <gulp>. The reason for the <gulp> is that this is the last thing I will do for my team, and I really don't want to leave them with a dud as they are great bunch of guys. As a team lead I've interviewed for de...
Our Company is looking for new web developer. Our main tool is built in Java, and there is a relatively big list of things that we need to fix in the java layer, and then there are all the clients that we deploy every month and we do for them a lot of front end tasks in HTML/CSS/JavaScript. I am inclined in hiring someone with Java as...
After you have asked the questions in The Joel Test, is it appropriate to ask a technical question or two to see how the software developers who are doing the hiring respond? If I did technical interviews (and I have only ever done lunch format interviews so my opinion could change I guess), I wouldn't mind a technical question or two, ...
My current boss has been promoted and we're currently looking for a technical manager to replace him. We (the remaining team) are being given the opportunity to interview the replacement and have a say in whether we hire him/her or not. He/She will be managing a small team in the US and a small offshore team (Java and C#). What are so...
I'm in the process of opening up a company that will eventually hire 2-5 developers to work on a large web app. My main concern is that one or more developers could steal the code. I could make them sign contracts against this type of thing, but I live in a country where the law is "bendable". Is my only option to lock them up in a ro...
My company is doing a fair bit of WPF and Silverlight development recently and we are discovering that while we are darn good at slinging code, our UI design skills lack some "pizazz". Where does one find a "devigner", as Microsoft calls them? Are there user groups (especially in the Dallas area) with these types of artists/usability ex...