lystn

Notes Randy is frank: taking a code quiz for a leadership or senior tech role is beneath his experience and skill-level A developer's body of work speaks to their ability to build and lead, not FizzBuzz Randy: Code challenges are lazy hiring. What do you look at? The body of work a developer has done. What do they advertise as work that represents them? Has this person been in a position for the role I'm hiring for? Will a coding quiz tell you that? Look at a candidate's resume, blog, and personal website or simply ask them Github repos are dumping grounds for scripts and not a great place to review someone's quality code Ask the person to provide examples of project they work on People can't show proprietary code from a company they work for, and you don't want them to If a person has not been able to build things, then a test to show technical aptitude may be warranted A green-level dev, in an audition process, must be judged with the idea that such tests are create anxiety Do you really want to hire someone who spends all their time preparing for coding tests? Don's team at AspirEDU brings in the developer, walks through prior experience, and then offers to pay them to come in and spend time working on a small project, and solve the issue A good number of exceptional developers are already employed and have a high demand for their skills If the only part of the tech pool you're looking at are unemployed people, are you missing out? A developer that spends all day coding, and then needs to do a coding challenge to prove they can code, may decide not to put up with your process If taking the time to hire quality people is a low priority, maybe you're misunderstanding the impact of exceptional developers vs average ones Under pressure, can you solve a quiz I just found in a book, and solve it to prove you're worth my time? If someone gives you a reference, take the time to call them and find out what kind of person the candidate is If a developer wants to forego recruiting that includes code puzzles, they need to ask: Who has the leverage, here? Links Hiring without Whiteboards (on GitHub) Hiring Without Whiteboards: HackerNews Discussion Recommendations Don recommends Angel: How to Invest in Technology Startups by Jason Calacanis Don recommends Angel the Podcast - E15: Arlan Hamilton Don recommends The Bootstapped VC Podcast with Arlan Hamilton Randy recommends Matt Levine: Money Stuff and you can subscribe to the email list via this link ClosingThanks for listening to the CTO Think Podcast.Shownotes and previous episodes can be found on our website at www.ctothink.comReviews on Apple iTunes are always appreciated and help promote the show.Patreon contributions help us to produce transcripts, which allow people that are deaf or hard-of-hearing to access the show.For questions, comments, or things you'd like to hear on future shows, please email us at hello@ctothink.comShow music is Dumpster Dive by Marc Walloch, licensed by PremiumBeat.comVoiceover work by MeganVoices.comYou'll hear from us next week!