Re: [GD-General] what you look for in a coder...

[Kent Q. <ken...@co...>]

At 09:28 AM 6/7/2004, you wrote:
>I also try to find out how "honest" they are, heh not in terms of being
>liars or criminals, but how willing they are to have opinions, propose their
>own choices, and debate them; some people go too far (opinionated, stubborn,
>not willing to compromise), and some people don't go far enough (waiting for
>you to express a view before they go and nod in agreement).


One thing I do is ask people to bring some code they're proud of to the 
interview. I *hate* programming tests. I think if you ask someone about 
their code and start poking at it, they can either tell you what they did 
and (at least as important) what they didn't do during the design and 
implementation of that code. The other way to push at this is to poke holes 
in their design for a while -- why'd you do this? Wouldn't it have been 
better if you did X instead? That kind of questioning exposes their 
knowledge of the code and design, and also helps you to understand their 
give and take in a discussion. Do they take criticism well? Do they 
interact with you or shut down? If you want a good team member, that kind 
of thing is important.

Of course, I always tell them afterward why I did that, just so they know 
that I'm not always that aggressive in practice. ;-)




----
Kent Quirk
CTO, CogniToy