Which Java programmer should I prefer?

Question

Which programmer would you chose for junior java position (web developer in agile team with Spring, Struts, Hibernate etc.)?

• The one who has very good knowledge of Java SE but almost none knowledge of Java EE and web frameworks and ORM
• The one who has mediocore knowledge of Java SE but at least basic knowledge of JPA,Hibernate,Spring,Maven,GWT,both NetBeans and Eclipse,JSF,EJB

Answer 1

Subjectively and argumentative speaking: the former, although I can't conceive someone who claims to have "very good Java knowledge" and at the same time "almost none", but it's possible.

Having very good Java knowledge will allow him to understand any framework and at large any new technology.

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Answer 2

I would take whichever one fits in best with the team and creates the best code. Any good developer can learn an API. What you want to judge by is the quality of the things they create rather than the APIs they have used in the past. The only benefit is that they may get up to speed faster if they know the API already. That doesn't tell you whether they will be writing good code or not.

Answer 3

There's no good way to answer this.

The good Java SE developer might be good at Java SE because that's all he cared about learning about which means he'd be poor at anything else (at least until I had ample time to pick it up) or it could mean that he's a strong all developer and will pick the other stuff up quickly.

The same could be said about the second candidate.

If it were up to me, and this was all I knew, I'd probably go for the second candidate since they have a little bit of experience in both and it is a junior position.

Answer 4

I will go for option one since both of them (java se/java ee) would required a good command over the language, it would be easy to teach about web technologies.

Answer 5

Well, for a junior position, I really only have 2 criteria:

• Candidate has a basic fundamental knowledge of the technology being used
• Candidate is not an a**hole

Now, unless you're trying to hire a mid-level developer under a junior-level title/salary (bad manager!) both are technically competent enough for the job. I would defer to which personality fits better with your team.

If you're really looking for a mid-level developer, both candidates have their pros and cons. It really comes down to whether you place emphasis on the SE part, or if the knowledge of the frameworks and ORM outweight that.