Software Developer

One of the major mistakes a lot of entrepreneurs make is looking for the wrong skill sets and hire the wrong people, which ultimately ruins the company. You can actually hire different people that will do better without even changing your applicant pool. Even if you are a software development company looking for more talent, here are the things you have been doing wrong all this time.

You look for the wrong things

Forget about hiring people for what they already know. This is a grave mistake that a lot of people make because they only interview and evaluate the present skills of the applicants, and undervalue any skills they will need in the future. You should also not bother with the kind of things they can remember during an interview. One of the things you probably do is ask your interviewer to write code.

Writing code under intense pressure such as during an interview is not a good idea. Don’t hire your candidates just because they have impressive credentials either because it can be an unreliable predictor. You should also not hire based on their previous employers because even though the company they came from is successful does not necessarily mean the applicant has anything to do with it.

You should also not hire a friend or family member because an existing relationship is bound to create bias and implicate your power structures and loyalty. At one point, you will be forced to compromise either your company, or your friendship. Instead of putting yourself in a position where you have to choose, this is a conflict you should avoid entirely.

What exactly should you look for then?

Can the candidate actually do the job? Can they get better at it with time? Relevant experience does not have to be necessity even though it could be a plus. Ask your candidates whether they have any kind of experience with the technology your company deals with. Discuss whatever topic they have a complete grasp on and their ability to communicate about it, which are imperative for a working engineer.

Look for a person who is improving on a consistent basis. Find out how they learnt what they know and how quickly they did it. What you need is a software developer who has a good track record of acquiring new skills and successfully applying them to projects. If they have increasing responsibility, even better.

Look for someone who knows exactly what they don’t know and are not afraid to admit they actually don’t know. If they start asking questions about it or attempt to make a guess, even better because it shows they are intellectually honest and they have a strong desire to learn.

You could make an exception

Even though your candidate may not have relevant experience, you can have a traditional interview. If you’re looking for people who deeply specialize in certain areas, you can hire a genius programmer even though they’re not very good at explaining themselves. However, this will only work if you have a large company that can afford a manager to explain things to you.