Re: Hiring new talent

As a developer/programmer myself, I understand that in most cases, I know
more about my subject than the interviewers, otherwise they wouldn't be
hiring.

The most important thing with programmers are references.  Ask for a handful
of references, and specific task descriptions.  Call up all the references.

Questions for references:
1) Project goal-was it realized?
2) Was the project completed on time?
3) Was the developer easy to communicate with/work well with others?
4) Did the developer spend time with other projects rather than giving you
exclusive time?
5) Did the developer have insight into your data needs and provide them
without asking, and in fact improved the end product?
6) Did fixes (Bound to be problems!) and/or patches come in a timely manner?

Questions for the potential hiree:
1) Does the developer have any sample apps that they can demo?   Most will
have some of this code kicking around, with fake data, for testing purposes.
2) Will you be exclusive to this project?
3) When the project is completed, do you have a service schedule?
4) **Important** - Have you worked on a project this (big/complex/long)
before, and was it a similar application?  The reason for this may not be
apparent, but say you're developing a POS commerce system and taxes and bill
of lading, shipping invoices, etc. must be calculated.  It helps if the
developer has similar experience, otherwise, learning time is involved, and
you'll pay for that (transparently).

Questions for you:
1)  Do you have a gameplan?  I hate starting on a project, just to find out
that the client has no idea what they really want, and they change their
minds.  A simple way might be to put your idea in a simple flowchart (names
and lines are fine) and think the process through.  Any developer worth
their salt will point out problem areas, and help you nail it down.

Good luck.
David Godfrey
Webmaster/Developer
PG Music Inc.



-----Original Message-----
From: WebProgrmr(at)aol.com <WebProgrmr(at)aol.com>
To: hwg-business(at)hwg.org <hwg-business(at)hwg.org>
Date: February 08, 2000 12:28 AM
Subject: Hiring new talent


>I'm with a small group of entrepeneurs who don't personally know how to
>program databases, but we're hiring a developer anyway.
>
>Becuase we don't know the code, how can we intelligently interview people
for
>the position?  I fear that we'll not know if someone's blowing smoke or if
>they truely know what they're talking about.
>
>++Dan
>

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