Any experience hiring a programmer? Where should I look?

qlai said:
Could be a very rational choice imo. The guy maybe just thinking long term career path. Also being promised 250k of total comp is NOT the same as actually getting it. Not to mention that Wall Street gets a bad rap nowadays, deservedly so imo. For most creative people, after some threshold, money alone is a poor motivator.
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The problem is the person hiring the programmer has no idea what the difference is between a good programmer or a novice one or sloppy one.

Learn some programming yourself and you'll easily be able to differentiate between the two, unless you are lazy..
 
qlai said:
Could be a very rational choice imo. The guy maybe just thinking long term career path. Also being promised 250k of total comp is NOT the same as actually getting it. Not to mention that Wall Street gets a bad rap nowadays, deservedly so imo. For most creative people, after some threshold, money alone is a poor motivator.
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Well, for the first year he’d have a guaranteed total comp.

I met him for a drink after he emailed me with a “no”. I think he wanted to do ML-related stuff and, in general, felt that the intellectual challenge in CS is far more obvious. Main gripe of CS people in financial markets is that there is a lot of daily grid to contend with. There is also an aspect of doing tangible productive work. So I totally understand his choice, I was just addressing the point that “if you can’t get the best people, you’re not paying enough”.
 
sle said:
Well, for the first year he’d have a guaranteed total comp.

I met him for a drink after he emailed me with a “no”. I think he wanted to do ML-related stuff and, in general, felt that the intellectual challenge in CS is far more obvious. Main gripe of CS people in financial markets is that there is a lot of daily grid to contend with. There is also an aspect of doing tangible productive work. So I totally understand his choice, I was just addressing the point that “if you can’t get the best people, you’re not paying enough”.
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In my limited experience, I've seen this upfront.
 
sle said:
Well, for the first year he’d have a guaranteed total comp.

I met him for a drink after he emailed me with a “no”. I think he wanted to do ML-related stuff and, in general, felt that the intellectual challenge in CS is far more obvious. Main gripe of CS people in financial markets is that there is a lot of daily grid to contend with. There is also an aspect of doing tangible productive work. So I totally understand his choice, I was just addressing the point that “if you can’t get the best people, you’re not paying enough”.
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Considering cost of living, that is a tremendous sacrifice. Or is it a huge reward depending one's perspective?
 
Gambit said:
Considering cost of living, that is a tremendous sacrifice. Or is it a huge reward depending one's perspective?
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I think he was staying in the NYC (there is a google campus here) so it was not a consideration. Maybe working in pure CS is far less stressful.
 
Euler09 said:
Learn some programming yourself and you'll easily be able to differentiate between the two, unless you are lazy..
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Oh, I wish it was that simple. Companies spend a lot of money to find the "right" candidate and still end up with "bad" employees. If you are a senior developer, you spend/waste lots of time interviewing which is not a pleasant experience (at least for a person who just wants to code). I don't think "some programming" will help you much. Even if you are able to determine that the candidate is technically sound it does NOT mean he/she will do a good job. I've seen experts that were impossible to work with ... not because they were obnoxious personalities, but rather they did not fit the culture/environment and being very good technically, did not feel the need to conform/compromise. They just split at the first opportunity. I think you need to get someone by recommendation and then find out what the person's motivation is. If it's just money, I would be hesitant. Nothing wrong with that, but I prefer that the person has some additional reason and better yet some skin in the game.
 
qlai said:
Oh, I wish it was that simple. Companies spend a lot of money to find the "right" candidate and still end up with "bad" employees. If you are a senior developer, you spend/waste lots of time interviewing which is not a pleasant experience (at least for a person who just wants to code). I don't think "some programming" will help you much. Even if you are able to determine that the candidate is technically sound it does NOT mean he/she will do a good job. I've seen experts that were impossible to work with ... not because they were obnoxious personalities, but rather they did not fit the culture/environment and being very good technically, did not feel the need to conform/compromise. They just split at the first opportunity. I think you need to get someone by recommendation and then find out what the person's motivation is. If it's just money, I would be hesitant. Nothing wrong with that, but I prefer that the person has some additional reason and better yet some skin in the game.
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It's a very different thing trying to find a dev who works well in a team environment in a regular day job vs finding someone to do one-off single person jobs like the OP is looking for. Often the lone wolves who suck at working a real job for that reason are ideal for the OPs type of job.
 
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