Portfolios
Shanti Braford asked:
While Google, Microsoft, Facebook, etc have an ongoing War for Talent, I wonder if another company could develop a system for developers who most Get Stuff Done, ship code, etc. (as in Joel’s “Smart & Gets Stuff Done” goal of hiring)
Looking at resumes only measures this trait so much. 2-minute academic coding problems usually measure IQ as opposed to brute coding that is more likely to be done in the wild.
Any ideas?


Metapundit nailed it: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
is the story of how the Athletics changed baseball by exploiting the discrepancies between how how much the market would value players and how much the players contributed to winning games.
Good companies can exploit the discrepancy between what the IT market values, like résumé buzzwords, and the metrics that strongly correlate to producing software, like portfolio pieces.
Well yes, as a matter of fact, I do have an idea:
Portfolios.
For example, this is my
teaser portfolio. I also carry a
physical portfolio to meetings with employers (the photos aren’t that impressive, but this is something I show in a face to face meeting, not something I use to justify meeting with me).
Quite simply, hire people who can show you
evidence of their Smarts and ability to Get Stuff Done™. Of course, the big companies will seize everyone with IQs off the charts, GPAs through the roof, and all the other obvious traits. So you’re looking for people who are “false negatives” by the standard tests, people who don’t get an offer from Google, maybe they don’t even get an interview, but they’re great anyway.
Of course, a portfolio is not the only thing. Readers, please don’t write and say, “but you also need to ask them to write
FizzBuzz,” or “what about
Monopoly,” or “
a degree from a good school shows they can handle doing the stuff they hate as well as the stuff they love.” I believe you! Test those things as well!!
I’m just saying, look for portfolios. Ask for them. Right in jour job ad, if you like.
p.s. I regularly receive requests for my
résumé. I expect more requests now that I’ve officially announced that
I am no longer working on my start up and am ready for the next chapter in my career. But it’s amazing how few people ask me to send a
portfolio, or links to
recent work, or
source code samples.
Labels: jobs