The document discusses a paradigm shift in hiring practices, focusing on the importance of hiring for attitude rather than just technical skills. It emphasizes traits of successful coders, such as understanding client needs, effective tool utilization, and strong communication skills. Additionally, it highlights the challenges of assessing technical and soft skills, along with the significance of integrity in hiring.

1. Hiring
for
Attitude.
Considering
a
different
hiring
paradigm.
Talent

2. • X+
years
of
hands-­‐on
software
development
• X+
years
of
java
development
• Hands
on
experience
in
designing
and
developing
J2EE
platforms
• OO
analysis
and
design
• Profound
insight
of
Java
and
J2EE
internals
• Excellent
knowledge
of
relational
databases
and
Open
Source
• Experience
in
developing
web
applications
using
at
least
one
popular
web
framework
We
throw
buzzwords
at
the
people
problem

3. Hired Fired
Technical skill *Can’t
accept feedback
(26%)
Mutual connections Unable to
understand
and
manage
emotions
(23%)
Industry
knowledge Lack
necessary
motivation
(17%)
Years
of
experience Lack
necessary
technical
skills
(11%)
*A
study
by
Leadership
IQ
Yet
here’s
why
people
get
hired…
and
why
they
get
fired

4. What
do
great
coders
do
differently?
1. Have
a
deeper
understanding
of
what
the
client
needs
so
they
don’t
spend
time
building
code
that’s
not
required.
2. Find
a
tool/library
that
gets
50%+
of
the
job
done
instead
of
writing
code
from
scratch.
3. Have
the
ability
to
focus
more
effectively,
and
block
out
interruptions
better
than
others.
4. Throw
out
code
that’s
not
working
rather
than
going
deep
on
extraneous
applications.
5. Communicate
with
their
peers
more
effectively.

5. Technical
knowledge
profile
Technical
skills (incl.
languages,
o/s,
databases,
tools,
methodologies
#
of
years
experience
and
how
current
Competency
level
(expert,
intermediate,
academic)
Additional
info
from
a
candidate’s
last
3
main
projects
1. Roles
on
the
projects
2. Size
of
projects
3. How
many
teams
4. New
initiatives/fixes/re-­‐platforms?
5. Have
you
transitioned
from
one
stack
to
another?
When?
Tell
me
about
the
process?
6. What
methodologies
have
they
used?
7. What
frameworks
have
they
used?
8. Have
they
worked
in
an
Open
Source
environment?
9. What
work
are
they
most
proud
of?
10.Tell
you
about
their
portfolio
11.What
sort
of
experimenting
do
they
do
off
hours?

6. • J2EE/Java
• Node.js
• Django/Python
• Zend/CakePHP
• Ruby
on
Rails
Enterprise
Stacks “Modern”
Stacks
45%
of
programmers
35%
of
programmers
20%
of
programmers
Front
–end
Application
Developers
and
Mobile
Application
Server-­‐ Business
Logic
Layer
Databases
.Net
Front–end
1-­‐3
months
within
this
stack
A
breakdown
of
technology
‘stacks’
and
languages
1-­‐3
months
to
get
up
and
running
• HTML5
• CSS
• Javascript
• Jquery
Tools
• Angular
• React
• Ember
Web
App
• PhoneGap
• Ionic
• Sencha
Hybrid
Mobile
• Objective
C
• Java
• C#
Mobile
App
Hard
3-­‐6
mo
to
move
between
these
stacks
SQL
(Oracle,
MySQL,
DB2,
PostgreSQL,
…)
NoSQL
(MongoDB,
CouchDB,
Cassandra,
…)

7. Assess
what
you’ve
done…
both
right
and
wrong

8. One
last
thought
“Somebody
once
said
that
in
looking
for
people
to
hire,
you
look
for
three
qualities:
integrity,
intelligence,
and
energy.
And
if
you
don’t
have
the
first,
the
other
two
will
kill
you.
You
think
about
it;
it’s
true.
If
you
hire
somebody
without
[integrity],
you
really
want
them
to
be
dumb
and
lazy.”

9. I
am
a
recruiter,
and
trusted
advisor,
for
critical
executive
and
senior
technical
roles
in
small
and
mid-­‐sized
technology
firms
Tel:
416-­‐406-­‐1777
E-­‐mail:
mfox@brightlightsinc.com
Website:
www.brightlightsinc.com