NYCPHP Meetup

[Kurt Zimmerman]

This is a rather interesting topic and I am quite
amused with some of the answers.

To start, I have over 27 years in IT.  I've been
through the ranks of programmer in all sorts of
languages.  Some of my greatest achievements were to
take a medium size corporate lending company into the
modern age of computer systems.

None the less, I've been on both sides of the table. 
I've asked those tough questions and I've been asked
those same type of questions.

The key is to have an objective.  If you want someone
to clean up someone's mess then you better state that
during the interviewing process.  When I was looking
for experienced developers I made sure the candidate
new what I was looking for.  In the one situation I
told each candidate that I needed to clean up a mess
and to mentor the other developers to stop making the
mess.  I was quite surprised to see how many people
actually turned down my offer.  

If you want to bring someone in to get a few minor
tasks developed and to manage then make it clear to
the candidates.  

As for testing, the programmer position I took on last
year I was asked to take a test.  The test was no big
deal but as stated here, it was designed to see if I
had the ability to program a solution given a set of
rules.

My present position I was able to carry my 27 years of
experience as well as show some aptitude towards the
type of work which turned out to be enough.

Hiring talented programmers can be challenging.  If
you know what you want then the questions often times
tend to flow much easier.

One other hint.  When I was staffing that corporate
finance company's development staff I would often have
others within the group participate in the
interviewing process.  This was done for several
reasons.  I wanted to make sure that the others
withing the group felt comfortable with the candidate.
 It is so important to develop and establish good
dynamics withing a group.  Groups that get along tend
to be much more productive.

Keep us posted.  

Kurt Zimmerman
DBA
RHWI, Inc
Poughkeepsie, NY

Kurt W. Zimmerman





 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Finding fabulous fares is fun.  
Let Yahoo! FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find flight and hotel bargains.
http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097