21–30 of 52 posts
My question is, are there other ways of indicating those qualities that won't be immediately copied by the "uncool" companies?
I always groan when I see it in job listings. The handful of real "rockstar" programmers don't need to scan job boards. I'm guessing what you're likely to attract with this kind of post is a lot of arrogant code cowboys that don't play well with others.
The handful of connected real "rockstar" programmers don't need to scan job boards. One could be a completely awesome programmer at a company which does not realize his/her potential and could be looking for a new job. Of course, mentioning the word "rockstar" doesn't really mean anything if the pay/benefits are no different from average. My point is not every rockstar programmer has a fan-following, famous blog, and tons of open-source projects. Corollary, not every programmer with a fan-following, famous blog, and tons of open-source projects is a rockstar.
http://blog.submitmy.info/2010/02/wanted-the-worlds-best-can...
Do rockstars even have jobs? Probably they do in a way, but I could imagine that they don't see themselves as people who have jobs.
One term from a job posting that I really liked was "best available athlete." It was for a business development type job, and it said to me that they were looking for talent over experience. Unfortunately, it turned out that they were looking for someone who could take on an entry level job at the company while also filling in for their soon to leave admin.
I guess the best way to determine what terms are effective an which are overused is to split test them somehow. Someone should build that kind of functionality into an Applicant Tracking System.
Personally I find that using the words "rockstar" or "ninja" makes the company that placed the ad sound like a bunch of immature amateurs.
Whenever I see such an ad, all I can think of is this: http://bit.ly/XosCo
In the bay area, all programmers are rock stars.
If you have to call yourself, your company, your product or your programmers "rockstars" then none of you are real rockstars. If you have to ask "what's different about rockstar's lifestyles compared to the small people?" then you definitely have no idea what you're even talking about.
It's just like being called a "hacker", or a "gangster" or similar. You either have legit street cred, and thereby are automatically included amongst an elite, meritocratic subculture, or you don't.
I always groan when I see it in job listings. The handful of real "rockstar" programmers don't need to scan job boards. I'm guessing what you're likely to attract with this kind of post is a lot of arrogant code cowboys that don't play well with others.
> The handful of real "rockstar" programmers don't need to scan job boards. The handful of connected real "rockstar" programmers don't need to scan job boards. One could be a completely awesome programmer at a company which does not realize his/her potential and could be looking for a new job. Of course, mentioning the word "rockstar" doesn't really mean anything if the pay/benefits are no different from average. My…
I hate the term myself, except that it seems to indicate a certain cluelessness that may be exploitable.
