Steve Levy

Engineer who crossed over to the dark side

26 years recruiting in tech sectors

SME sourcing, engaging, recruiting, retaining

Founder & Organizer of tech user groups

IN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenmlevy

Twitter: @LevyRecruits

Blog: http://www.recruitinginferno.com

Google me: steve-levy recruiting

Read this:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Guer

rillaInterviewing3.html

This too:

http://www.fastcolabs.com/3015662/want-to-

recruit-better-developers-give-them-broken-

code

“Not answering when I ask for more specifics

about the kind of work such as tech stack or

interesting classes of problems. I get this one a lot,

and my goal in asking for more details is to find out

if I or someone I know might be a good fit. If you

refuse to say anything more than ‘uses Python’,

I'm probably not going to respond back.”

“Asking me if I'm interested in a job using a

technology that appears NOWHERE on my

resume AT ALL and yet clearly requires significant

expertise in the technology”

it’s not that difficult to understand

“When debugging, novices insert corrective code;

experts remove defective code.”

[know it, use it]

[listen to how people describe their projects]

“Java is to JavaScript what Car is to Carpet.”

[know it, use it]

[please don’t fake what you know if you don’t know]

“It's hard enough to find an error in your code

when you're looking for it; it's even harder when

you've assumed your code is error-free.”

[know it, use it]

[when assessing, consider using broken or obfuscated code testing]

“If debugging is the process of removing software

bugs, then programming must be the process of

putting them in.”

~Edsger Dijkstra

[know it, use it]

[ask for a developer’s reaction to this during the interview]

“Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining

your code will be a violent psychopath who knows

where you live.”

[know it, use it]

[ask how they work with psycho-code]

“There is not now, nor has there ever been, nor will

there ever be, any programming language in which

it is the least bit difficult to write bad code.”

~Flon's Law

[know it, use it]

[always ask opinions about alternatives to existing stack]

“Most software today is very much like an Egyptian

pyramid with millions of bricks piled on top of each

other, with no structural integrity, but just done by

brute force and thousands of slaves.”

[know it, use it]

[legacy code is a reality that both exists and must be planned for]

“Any code of your own that you haven't looked at for six

or more months might as well have been written by

someone else.”

~Eagleson's law

[know it, use it]

[be careful of making recruiting decisions based solely on code repositories ]

“Good code is its own best documentation.”

[know it, use it]

[assess code tests with and without documentation]

best ingredients + best recipe + best chef =

The People are the ingredients

You must know their Likes, Dislikes, Quirks,

Cultural Differences

Look for tools other than the hammer – because

not everything is a nail

You don’t want to lead the horse to water – you

want to make them thirsty

Most of all, be knowledgeable & personal

They want you to be honest; never fake it

They want to know the real job not the tasks

They want to know the entire stack

They want to discuss your problems – not get

grilled about contrived CS 101 material

They want a real mentor

They want to be heard once on the job

They want to have an impact – that’s mine

The 7-10 years problem

Trusting self-assessment as a Rockstar

Not asking to write the “right” code

“Hire but not for my team”

Ignoring spelling errors

Not focusing on technical and people skills

Fear of hiring someone better

A/B Testing Your Process. How do you know

that it works? Or are you simply cutting &

pasting from a previous job?

How We Really Work. Scrum, Agile, Waterfall,

Paired, TDD, BDD, Design Patterns: Do you

assess they way you really work?

How Our Best Developers Work. Is this built

into your assessment process?

Community Matters. Do you really care that

many want to be part of something even larger

than the company?

360 Relationships. Are you building all

relationships into your process?

Great Code. How do you define and “score” great

code? “We’ll know it when we see it”?

What They Really Want To Do. Do you care

about what excites them? How can your company

help them achieve this goal?

Use Humor. “If you had just boarded a plane and

discovered that your team of programmers had

been responsible for the flight control software,

would immediately disembark?”

3Sourcing

Aevy

Dice Openweb

Entelo

Gild

Talentbin

It has to be real life to be “predictive”

Hire for performance: Hire skill, not school

Code Challenges differentiate good from great

developers

Hackathons are the new career fairs

Since great programmers live everywhere, you

need to engage them everywhere

What would you like to improve?