What Makes a Great Developer - Develop Denver 2015

Copyright 2015 Tendril, Inc. All rights reserved.

WHAT MAKES A GREAT DEVELOPERAND HOW DO WE FIND ONE?


Who we areINTRODUCTION

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2004BOULDERCODENVER

80+EMPLOYEES

LEADING

ESMPROVIDER

AcquireEngageActivate

150M150M in funding

to date (VC & Strategic)

OPERATIONS

NORTH AMERICA / EUROPE

Using Energy Intelligence to enable a

smarter market for

energy products and

services

DVLP DNVR | @CJPhelps | August 2105


OVERVIEW

• What is our general approach?

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Copyright 2015 Tendril, Inc. All rights reserved.DVLP DNVR | @CJPhelps | August 2105

People are our #1 Asset

• Involve all engineers• Interviewing takes precedence• Take hiring seriously

OVERVIEW

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• Marketing• Recruiters• Interviewing• Salaries and

Negotiation• Offer or

Rejection• Onboarding

Hiring is HolisticOVERVIEW

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Tailored to a Tight Market

• Pursue candidates honestly• No misleading• Real problems• Real coworkers• Respect and Reputation

OVERVIEW

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• Interactions• Culture• Vision• Career goals• Turnaround

Interviewing is two way street

OVERVIEW

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Rubric

• Culture Fit• Technical Aptitude• Technical Fit

OVERVIEW

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VALUES

• What are we looking for anyway?

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VALUES

“You can’t unteach asshole”- Barry Hawkins

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Culture

• Collaboration• Influence• Communication• Pragmatism• Enthusiasm• Introspection

VALUES

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Technical Aptitude

• Clear and focused thinking• Communication• Questions and assumptions• Curiosity• Breadth of experience• Ability to learn

VALUES

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Technical Fit

• Wide ecosystem familiarity• Experience building systems like this• Techniques for designing, testing, or

debugging• Scale and performance• Languages, Tools, Frameworks

VALUES

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INTERVIEW STAGES

• How do we do interviews?

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Up To Three Usual Stages

Phone ScreenConversation not Quiz

Face to FaceCollaborative and Technical

PairingFocused Interaction

INTERVIEW STAGES

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Phone Screen

• Conversation not checklist• Culture and aptitude focus

• Phone or video?

INTERVIEW STAGES

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Phone Screen Evolution

• Before - More objective • Now - More subjective and cultural• Change in topics as our needs change

INTERVIEW STAGES

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Phone Screen Content

• What have you been working on?• Describe what you did and why• What would you do differently?• How do you stay up to date?

INTERVIEW STAGES

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Face to Face Interview

• Coding and collaborating• Design• Overview of architecture and work• No brainteasers, trivia, grilling

INTERVIEW STAGES

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Tradeoffs

• Standardized questions or Organic discussion?

• Apropos to how you work• How far do you drill?

INTERVIEW STAGES

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• Collaborative

• Looking at and talking about actual code

• Should look like day to day work

Coding ExerciseINTERVIEW STAGES

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Example Exercise - Java

• Basic working class with no tests• Tricky to test as written• Write tests and test drive API

INTERVIEW STAGES

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Example Exercise – Web Developer

• Interactively build a page• Reactive elements• Some Javascript

INTERVIEW STAGES

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• Domain-relevant

• Focus on interactions

• Complications

Design ExerciseINTERVIEW STAGES

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Pairing Interview

• Real code, real problems• Detailed code review or ping pong pairing• How is working with this candidate?• Specific outstanding question

INTERVIEW STAGES

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AFTER THE INTERVIEW

• What do we need to do next?

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Meet-After

• Meet as soon as possible• Discuss opinions and reasons• What hiring recommendation

AFTER THE INTERVIEW

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• All Engineers participate

• Early participation

• All opinions valued

• Calibrate expectations

Involve EveryoneAFTER THE INTERVIEW

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Growth and Potential

• Can the candidate grow into these areas?• What does the candidate need to bloom?• Can we supply those things?

AFTER THE INTERVIEW

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• Diversity of thought and opinion

• You want people who push the culture

• But only a bit

DiversityAFTER THE INTERVIEW

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Measure the Process

• How are we doing?• How are our selection metrics?• Interview occasional outliers• Do the hires match the goals?• What feedback did we get from

candidates?

AFTER THE INTERVIEW

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TAKEAWAYS

• What should you remember?

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TAKEAWAYCOMPANIES

1. Optimize your interview to your culture and the way you work

2. Hiring is important. Take the time to think about it and do it well

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TAKEAWAYCANDIDATES

1. Think about what the interview tells you about the company

2. Don’t tolerate bad interviews!

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Copyright 2015 Tendril, Inc. All rights reserved.DVLP DNVR | @CJPhelps | August 2105 35


Image Credits

• https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/1627796840/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/sharif/3056967952/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/aigle_dore/8274730440/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/jdhancock/4261987342/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahbaker/272685583/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/nikio/3899114449/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/4521400865/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/usnavy/5754839937/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/seeminglee/8174347684/

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Recruiting & HR

What Makes a Great Developer - Develop Denver 2015