How to Hire a Developer. Khurram Virani

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Madlyn Hopkins
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1 How to Hire a Developer Khurram Virani

3 Khurram Partner - Functional Instructor - Bitmaker

4 Demand

5 Developers are in high demand

6 Software is Eating The World Marc Andreessen, Aug 2011 Every company and individual on the planet relies on it

7 Indeed.com

8 Top 20 Startup Ecosystems (Toronto is #8) Startup Genome Report 2012

9 Salaries in Toronto Jr. Developer (New CS Grad) 50K to 60K Sr. Developer 80K to 100K

10 Toronto Faces a Challenge Top Toronto developers are leaving Great incubator of talent... But can't hold on to them

11 Hiring

12 Determining Fit... Generalist vs Specialist Framework Developer vs Application Developer

13 "Finding Great Developers" Great vs Competent vs Poor "Great" developers already have jobs We hang out with the same class Recruiters vs Network Job Boards? Internships?

14 Interviewing (Mostly Technical)

15 Interviewing Juniors / New Grads Popular / Common approach: 1- Transcript 2- Portfolio (apps, twitter, blog, github) 3-30m technical phone screen 4- Code challenge homework (1h to 2h) 5-3h on-site technical interview 6- Pair programming with Sr. Dev on site ~ half-day session

16 My Technical Requirements Jr. Ruy on Rails Developer: SQL JavaScript & jquery Cloud Services (S3, EC2, Heroku) Ruby Rails HTML5/CSS HTTP

17 Interviewing Sr. Developer Have more of your Sr. Devs interview them Conversational approach. More focus on past experience than writing FizzBuzz Discuss design patterns they like and solve architecture problems, instead of SQL statements

18 Common Questions 1) But no one on my team (yet) is technical enough to conduct a technical interview... What then? 2) Should I hire a developer that knows language/framework X when we use language/framework Y? Eg: Python/Django <==> Ruby/Rails

19 Culture

20 Work Culture Is about commonality, not a ping pong table or pretty decor More about the people, their personalities, goals, interests and bringing that all together.

21 Work Culture Developers are creative. Developers as product drivers. Effective where the company is the software (eg: Facebook).

22 FOOD

23 Remote Talent

24 Remote Talent Not to be confused with: "offshoring" or "outsourcing" Sack Exchange: "Why We (Still) Believe in Working Remotely" 37 Signals: "Stop whining and start hiring remote workers"

25 Remote Talent - Why? 1) Most people can't or don't want to relocate 2) When people do move, it's often "My spouse is going to med school" 3) Productivity is actually higher: "most of our remote developers work longer hours than our in-office devs." 4) The whole team (even local devs) must do everything online 5) Not a lot of companies are doing it, so easier to find remote talent (for now)

26 Remote Talent 5) Works super well with collaborative workspaces. Search online for remote full time positions today and you won't find much.... But in a few years almost everyone will be doing it and it will be a no brainer.*

27 Remote Talent How? 1) Google Hangouts (in the Background) 2) Persistent Chat (campfire) 3) 4) Trello (Agile Board) 5) Google Docs (Specs, Notes)

28 Paying with Equity Very heavily debated topic. Guidelines: 1) Fairness much more valuable than stake 2) Always want your equity to vest 3) Be prepared to give up significant equity for founding team / co-founders 4) Ideas are meaningless. Execution is key. 5) Equity is not currency.

29 Conclusion - High Demand. Toronto is losing Sr. Talent to SF. - Remote teams are going to become more popular - Startups should seek generalists - Established companies seek both generalists & specialists - Technical interviews are very important. - Don't interview a Sr. Dev the same way you interview a New Grad - Go where the talent is, instead of posting to boards - Culture is important to attract and retain talent

30 References (Further Reading)

31 Questions?

HYBRID. Course Packet

HYBRID. Course Packet HYBRID Course Packet TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 HYBRID Overview 3 Schedule 4 Prerequisites 5 Admissions Process 6 What is a Full Stack? 7 Why Become a Full Stack Developer? 8 Inside the 3 Full Stacks: LAMP 9