[ajug-members] The Development Skill Laundry List

[Paul McKibben]

This topic hits close to home for me (I'm talking about skills lists, not
high school), having experienced the frustrations of it both as a team lead
interviewing candidates, and as a former candidate interviewing for
positions.

Just a few days ago, I interviewed a candidate with a long list of
"qualifications".  His resume looked like alphabet soup.  When I see a
resume like that, my first reaction is to toss it aside--a resume like that
only emphasizes technologies, and not the ability to think, learn, and solve
problems.  However, my boss already scheduled an interview before I ever saw
his resume.  When this candidate did come in, all of us who interviewed him
came to the same conclusion: he knew how to regurgitate the technical skills
he learned, but he did not know how to apply those skills to solve problems.

I'm really frustrated with the ability to find good candidates.  For the
most part, recruiters have not helped.  It's not their fault--all they have
to go on is buzzwords.  But if you believe writers like Joel Spolsky (
http://joelonsoftware.com) and Nick Corcodilos (http://asktheheadhunter.com),
the best candidates don't often come in through recruiters--they come in
through referrals by people who know them.  I can say that of all the people
on my team, now and in the past, the best ones did NOT come in through
recruiters.  They came in through referrals.  Conversely, of all the ones
that came in through recruiters (most of them have come and gone), there is
only one that I would like to hire back.  That's 1 out of 5, in a 3-year
timeframe.  20% is not very good, especially compared to the near perfect
results we get through referrals.

So as a team lead, what do I look for?  The most important qualifications
are good judgment, and the ability to think, learn, and solve problems.
However, we do have some basic technical requirements as well.  Since we
(Wave7 Optics) are telecom equipment vendor, and our team develops
management software for the equipment we sell, we prefer candidates who have
some experience with element management or network management software, or
at least have some understanding of IP networking.  Since we write our
software in Java, we expect candidates to know the Java programming
language.  Anything above and beyond that is a bonus.  The more experienced
you are with technologies that we use (or could use) in our management
software, it certainly helps.  But if all you know is technologies, and you
aren't able to look at a particular scenario, understand it, and decide the
best technologies to use for that scenario, you're more harm to us than
good.  It's easier to learn technologies than good judgment.  We want
candidates with good judgment and the ability to learn fast.

By the way, if it's not obvious already, we're looking for a Software
Engineer at Wave7.  If you're interested (especially after reading this),
please e-mail me at my work address: paul.mckibben(at)w7optics.com.  I
advise you not to just send a resume, but also explain why you think you'd
be a good fit.  I also welcome questions if you just want to find out more
about the position.  I posted something to ajug-jobs last week, so feel free
to take a look at that.  You can find more about the company at
http://www.wave7optics.com.  Note that this position is not yet listed on
our web site.

Recruiters: sorry, but please don't e-mail me regarding this position.  I do
not have the authority to accept business from recruiters.

Regards,
  Paul

On 8/19/07, Keith Welch <kwelch at mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> > All you have proven is that you were a virgin in high school.
>
> That was just a rumor!
>
> (Sorry for quoting the entire message without my comment earlier)
>
>
>
>
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