The case for language agnostic hiring • Hacker News Board

Re: The case for language agnostic hiring

#121

Post by nerdponx » Fri, Sep 02, 2022, 7:08 PM UTC

AlchemistCamp wrote: post #43

nerdponx wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would have happened if your team didn't already have a bunch of experienced Elixir users on it? You'd have the blind leading the blind.

For the project last year, it wasn't a bunch. It was just me and the ex-Bridgewater guy who was learning. Also, I taught myself back in 2017 while working on my own startup. Even back then, the docs were good and there were lots of helpful people on the internet.

You're very fortunate to have the opportunity to learn "on the clock" then. Most developers are lucky if they can block out a week to learn something that isn't directly connected to "a feature".

Re: The case for language agnostic hiring

#122

Post by AlchemistCamp » Sun, Sep 04, 2022, 5:35 AM UTC

nerdponx wrote: post #121

AlchemistCamp wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the project last year, it wasn't a bunch. It was just me and the ex-Bridgewater guy who was learning. Also, I taught myself back in 2017 while working on my own startup. Even back then, the docs were good and there were lots of helpful people on the internet.

You're very fortunate to have the opportunity to learn "on the clock" then. Most developers are lucky if they can block out a week to learn something that isn't directly connected to "a feature".

No. I'm afraid you misread. I self-studied in 2017, while working on my own startup (and living on under $1k/month).

Re: The case for language agnostic hiring

#123

Post by julik » Thu, Sep 08, 2022, 4:40 PM UTC

marcosdumay wrote: post #99

julik wrote: post #35

>You might be looking for a specialist but you don’t want to attract people who are only interested in particular languages. Because that person’s narrow focus will hinder their growth. Exactly what I have been witness to was this taken to the test. Result: * You hire devs who do not like (or worse: hate) working in the language of the shop. They scold at the application they have to maintain and run, they do not con…

Announcing some position as "we want software developers with $qualifications to work mainly on our PHP backend" is completely different from "we want software developers with 5 years of experience with PHP". Also, you don't promote people for non-valuable rewriting of stuff.

> Also, you don't promote people for non-valuable rewriting of stuff.

You do once it is organizationally perceived as "modernization". Speaking from experience as I been on both ends of this (getting promoted for rewrites which in retrospect were ego-driven as well as seeing others getting promoted even though nobody asked for their rewrite)

Re: The case for language agnostic hiring

#124

Post by julik » Thu, Sep 08, 2022, 4:42 PM UTC

teh_klev wrote: post #120

matt_craig wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the suggestion of having an explicit hard requirement that employees be willing to use and engage with the existing tech stack. It makes it easier to point to the requirements and say “you signed up for this”. I’m surprised, perhaps naively so, that devs apply for roles featuring languages they actively don’t like (or even hate). What’s more understandable is a dev picking up a new language/tech stack on a job…

> devs apply for roles featuring languages they actively don’t like Then that's their problem, not the employer's fault. If you know what stack is being used when applying for a job, and you despise said development stack, then why apply for the job? But there are other developers out there who aren't that fussed about what development stack they might be working with. Often there are other attractions to the role su…

> then why apply for the job?

Opportunism perhaps? "...once they fire all these annoying legacy senior people we can redo everything..." As well as going down in the level of the joint (going from an A-league startup to a B-league startup) in the hope of more authority and ability to determine the choice of tech?