This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by James Robertson. Original Post: What kind of experience Feed Title: Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants Feed URL: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/rssBlog/rssBlogView.xml Feed Description: James Robertson comments on Cincom Smalltalk, the Smalltalk development community, and IT trends and issues in general. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by James Robertson Latest Posts From Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants

Here's an interesting item on hiring. You see a lot of job postings asking for 3 (or 5, etc) years of experience with a specific programming language. You'll also hear managers say "I can't bring in technology X; where would I find developers?" Smalltalk (and other niche language) advocates get this a lot. The funny thing is, it's a silly prejudice. Developers will tell you that they can pick up a new language quickly (if that wasn't true, then neither Java nor C# ever would ever have taken off). The hard thing to learn is the specific domain that the developer will be working in - and that almost always seems to be a secondary concern on the hiring managers - they focus on the irrelevant, and ignore the important. Here's what hiring managers ought to do:

You want to know how to hire a programmer - don't even bother with technical questions in the first interview; have them write a one-page essay (preferably at home, using their choice of tools). Too many spelling errors - no hire; they will write bugs and not fix them. Monolithic block of text without paragraphs - no hire; they won't structure their programs. No introduction or conclusion - no hire; they won't know how to start or finish.

On the other hand, if you see a proper logical flow, maybe even a main title and section headings, and if there's a single coherent story being told - grab' em. Do hit them with a technical challenge, it is programming skill you're after - but you have a much better shot at a good programmer if they can write well to start with.

In other workds, look for good skills that will cross domains - because those will stand you in good stead no matter what comes down the pike. Focusing on a transient technical issue is probably the worst thing you can do.