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Ask HN: What qualities do you look for in a junior developer?

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Re: Ask HN: What qualities do you look for in a junior developer?

#51

Post by dcole2929 »

rubyn00bie wrote: post #6

I've been in this exact situation and had some real success (and failure)... I think hiring a junior developer who will be great and good for your organization comes down to one thing: how much passion do they have for programming? If they don't do it on their own, and don't seem interested in programming for their own benefit outside of the job, then don't hire them. People who are new but enthusiastic and spend a l…

>> If they don't do it on their own, and don't seem interested in programming for their own benefit outside of the job, then don't hire them.

I strongly disagree with this. We as an industry desperately need to stop propagating these myths about what makes a good developer. You're enthusiasm for programming outside of work has jack all to do with your ability to perform the job functions expected of a SWE. Is it a sign if you are into programming as a pass time? Sure, but it's by no means an indicator of the quality of said programming. We don't expect lawyers to be litigating cases in their free time and we would never tell an accounting firm to pass up any candidate who doesn't demonstrably love doing their taxes. People work 8+ hours a day in these jobs and otherwise have lives. One could even argue that other interests is better for the long term prospects of candidate because they are less likely to burn out. 8 hours a day is more than enough time to build up domain expertise given the ~260 days you can expect to spend doing this each day

Re: Ask HN: What qualities do you look for in a junior developer?

#52

Post by rmetzler »

lukeqsee wrote: post #10

- A voracious appetite for learning. - A genuinely nice person. If I have two things, I'm pretty sure the rest will work out in the end.

I second that.

I had a few students working with me. The one guy who asks questions when he doesn't understand something and who isn't afraid to say so, helps me the most.

I also like when I understand what skills a junior dev has (e.g. HTML, CSS, JavaScript vs Java), so I know what I can outsource to him and have a clue about how long it will take.

But I also learned, that the overhead of managing someone and helping them can eat up all my time. You need to balance it out and have a backlog of low priority tasks to throw at them.

Re: Ask HN: What qualities do you look for in a junior developer?

#54

Post by sevensor »

We're a small company in a small town. When we go to hire, we can't afford software developers, period. We can't pay relocation even if they were willing to move here. There's a local university, but we have yet to see a graduate of the C.S. program who was competent, willing to stay in town, and not already hired by one of the area's larger employers. We've made a couple of good hires, none of whom had significant programming experience.

We look for people with analytical backgrounds: engineering or the hard sciences. They have to be capable of independent thought and interested in solving hard problems. That's what we have to offer as an employer: you get to do interesting work and live in a really nice town.

Re: Ask HN: What qualities do you look for in a junior developer?

#55

Post by spicytunacone »

sevensor wrote: post #54

We're a small company in a small town. When we go to hire, we can't afford software developers, period. We can't pay relocation even if they were willing to move here. There's a local university, but we have yet to see a graduate of the C.S. program who was competent, willing to stay in town, and not already hired by one of the area's larger employers. We've made a couple of good hires, none of whom had significant p…

What town, out of curiosity?

Re: Ask HN: What qualities do you look for in a junior developer?

#58

Post by lgunsch »

8draco8 wrote: post #30

First of all I can't believe that there was not even one decent junior dev among 400+. Last year I was in the same position as you but received far less applications (15-20). 3 of them was decent, one of them we employed and he turned out much better than on paper. Main thing is to give them homework: not more than 2 hours project that they will solve at home and commit to private repo. Make it unique enough to avoid…

Very interesting approach. I've heard of an approach similar to this one, although it was not limited to junior devs. You can quickly find out if a possible final candidate is appropriate, and a good fit for the company, by simply working with them for a day on a small project.

Re: Ask HN: What qualities do you look for in a junior developer?

#59

Post by liquidise »

dcole2929 wrote: post #51
rubyn00bie wrote: post #6

I've been in this exact situation and had some real success (and failure)... I think hiring a junior developer who will be great and good for your organization comes down to one thing: how much passion do they have for programming? If they don't do it on their own, and don't seem interested in programming for their own benefit outside of the job, then don't hire them. People who are new but enthusiastic and spend a l…

>> If they don't do it on their own, and don't seem interested in programming for their own benefit outside of the job, then don't hire them. I strongly disagree with this. We as an industry desperately need to stop propagating these myths about what makes a good developer. You're enthusiasm for programming outside of work has jack all to do with your ability to perform the job functions expected of a SWE. Is it a si…

Let me qualify the parent comment with my own feelings, as i knew the moment i read their comment what your reply would say.

Of the 30 or so engineers i have worked closely with over the last 6 years, nothing correlates better to the programmers ability than what i describe as "passion".

I do not share the stance that this requires someone to spend time outside of work on personal projects or burning the midnight oil on work. Instead, what i look for is a burning desire to be creative and solve problems, specifically with code. I give candidates a number of opportunities to express why coding is important to them, and what would they be doing in its absence. If i had to only ask a single interview question, it would be something to that effect.

While i don't mean to suggest every excellent programmer shares this passion, it has become the best single barometer i can find of gauging future ability. With midlevel and senior devs this task becomes a lot easier because you have so much experience to lean on. For juniors, passion is king.

Re: Ask HN: What qualities do you look for in a junior developer?

#60

Post by sploosh »

You get what you pay for! If you can't afford senior developers, get someone you can train that can listen and has an ability to hone coding chops. Take on an intern, or maybe a contractor... as a matter of fact, why do you look into having a recruiter do this for you??
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