Why is it so hard to hire good software developers?

Why is it so hard to hire good software developers? That is the question I’ve been asking myself recently. The company I work for is currently looking for two software developers and it is incredibly disheartening to see the quality of candidates.

First off the quality of the CVs. We’ve taken a two pronged approach to this. We used a recruitment agency and we advertised ourselves. What a difference between the two approaches! The CVs we got from the recruitment agency were at least sufficient quality to warrant an interview. The vast majority of the CVs we got from our advertising efforts were useless. Half didn’t even live within a commutable distance.

Of those that we did interview two thirds didn’t make it past the first interview. This is an informal meeting where we ask some questions based on what’s in their CV and try and assess their personality. If they mention that they’ve got SQL Server experience we’ll ask questions on that. If they say they’ve got Reporting Services experience we’ll delve a bit further.

We are looking for C# developers, but we don’t mind VB.NET guys because the main learning curve is the .NET Framework and that is the same for C# and VB.NET. The hundred or so differences come from the language syntax and that can be overcome in a short period of time.

The second interview is really a technical test. We give the candidate a specification and walk them through it. The application is sufficiently small that it is just possible to complete everything in the allotted two hours, but most don’t – and we don’t expect candidates to complete it, although we do expect that they will get a fair way through it. Part of what we are looking for is to see how their thought processes work, so the spec is sufficiently loose that they can make choices to show off their skills.

We’ve found that it really is the best way to discover if the candidate can actually do the work. The application is not difficult by any stretch of the imagination and we’d expect anyone with a few years experience or a computing or software engineering degree to be able to complete a fair portion of it. It is, admittedly, slightly larger the Scott Hanselman’s example of the Buzz-Fizz program. But, then, we also want to see how they would structure a more realistic application rather than just a single simple algorithm.

So, what would we recommend? Listening to DotNetRocks is a good start. Download it to your MP3 player or burn it to a CD and listen to it on your commute to and from work. Most people waste that entire time going to and from work, so start doing something useful with it. I vaguely remember a study that suggested that if you drive 12,000 miles per year (a 24 mile commute) you could learn as much as a 3 year degree course in 4 years.

Next, watching episodes of dnrTV will help. If you need to learn about some newer technologies then the Developer Platform Evangelists at Microsoft UK have produced an number of Nuggets – short 10-ish minute videos showing a single concept.

But, what is next for us? We are considering going back to basics. If we can’t find someone with the relevant skills then we’ll have to hire someone without those skills. But we can’t hire someone with a few years “experience” because they’ll want more money than they are worth, so fresh graduates or especially talented folk that are crossing from another field in IT will be what we are looking for.

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Feedback from DDD5

I’ve now received the feedback from the talk I did at DDD5. For the most part I thought the scores I received were fair. There were a couple of really scathing comments, but most pointed out things that I should work on to improve my presentation style.

The averages (out of 5) for each of the 4 things I was marked on were:

  • Overall: 3.68
  • Knowledge: 3.94
  • Presentation: 3.24
  • Content: 3.5

Most people did give me a lower mark for presentation – which I know I have to work on. I’m not the best at turning an already dry subject into something really exciting. A number of people commented on my initial nervousness, which is also true. I think that is something most presenters have, I’ve just not managed to hide it as well as some other people, and other than to a group of 4 developers at work this was the first outing for this presentation so I wasn’t sure how it was going to be received.

One interesting comment was to use yellow highlight. I though I did, but it turns out that my laptop is set to cyan. I will take that on board as I was looking at the screen in front of me rather than the projected image the audience saw.

The same person also suggested I use something called Zoomit. That comment seemed to concur with another that the fonts were too small. However, other than a brief moment when I first fired up Visual Studio, the fonts were set to 16pt which, when I asked the audience if it was big enough, I was told was perfectly readable. However, Zoomit may be useful so I’ll get that installed.

It also seems that I paused when moving between the code and the presentation. I agree that is something I have to work on. I am not good at multitasking, which is probably why didn’t say anything, however someone else suggested that to ease those moments it was best to just verbalise my internal thought processes just to let the audience know that I was still doing something. So, that is something I’ll try to do from now on.

One commenter said that I “introduced terms and abbreviations without explaining them”. I’m usually quite careful about that, but I’ll watch out for it in the future. It would have been nice to know what the terms were, that way I will be more conscious of them in the future.

One person was highly disappointed that I didn’t know much about TypeMock. Since my aim was to talk about the concept in general rather than about individual frameworks I didn’t think it was important to the presentation. A second person would have liked me to have delved deeper into the workings of RhinoMocks, the framework I was using for demonstration purposes. So, it would seem that people are interested in specific technologies. However, in a one hour session it would have been impossible to have explained the concept then shown off every aspect of each of the various frameworks, or even a specific one. It was, after all, only an introduction to the subject.

If all this seems a bit negative, it is because I’ve concentrated on the aspects that I need to improve or felt I had to address. I did get some very encouraging comments, including:

  • “The content was great and highly relevant”
  • “I came to DDD specifically to attend this presentation. I was not disappointed. I’ve already put what I learned into action.”
  • “Good Session”
  • “It was a good introduction to mocking”

Also, if I take out the the two scathing comments (outliers it’s called in statistics) out of the 35 people that filled in feedback my score increases a little bit. I don’t know how valid you think doing that is (but it makes me feel better):

  • Overall: 3.78
  • Knowledge: 4.06
  • Presentation: 3.34
  • Content: 3.63

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Comments are borked

There is something wrong with the comments on my blog at the moment – I’ve had reports of people not being able to comment. I am looking into this and will try and get something sorted out – there is a new version of the blog software I’m using so I’ll upgrade to that shortly.

If you do want to send me a comment in the meantime please use the contact button up at the top-left and send me one that way – I’ll make sure it gets put on the correct post (if you tell me what post it belongs to).

Free maps of Edinburgh

Map data in the UK is not free. It costs money. Lots of money. Compare that with the USA where map data is essentially free.

Why? Well in the US anything published by the US Government becomes public domain – you can do what you want with it. You can buy maps from the US government for the cost of getting the data to you. In the UK the government is well known for taxing us as many times as possible, and it is no different than with maps. We pay our taxes so the Ordnance Survey can do its job and then the OS turn round and demand a hefty sum for us to buy the map data from them again (like I haven’t already paid for it through my tax!)

Well, there are a keen group of individuals who are creating world maps under a Creative Commons license. This means that you essentially have open source map data. They call this Open Street Map and it is a work in progress. They need help to get it completed. Every so often they have a mapping party where a group of people go out with GPS devices and record streets. They then upload that data in to a database, make corrections, add annotations (like the street name and type) and then allow it to be downloaded by anyone.

Their first mapping party in Scotland will be held this month in Edinburgh. So, if you have a GPS and would like to help create a free open source map that everyone can use, please get yourself along.

If you want to find out how to go about mapping, there is this handy guide to get you started.

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SQL Server 2008 (July CTP): More installation woes

I’ve done it again. I’ve attempted to install SQL Server 2008 (this time the July 2007 CTP) and it hasn’t quite gone the way I expected.

This time there was no Management Studio. Why? Well, when I tried to go through the set up process again, I got a message that said “The following components you chose to install are already installed on the machine… Workstation components, Books Online and development tools 9.2.3042.00”. The first time round I just ignored it, but this time I paid more attention and clicked the button to give me details. It said:

Name: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Tools Express Edition
Reason: Your upgrade is blocked. For more information about upgrade support, see the “Version and Edition Upgrades” and “Hardware and Software Requirements” topics in SQL Server 2008 Setup Help or SQL Server 2008 Books Online.

Okay – So, I already have SQL Server 2005 express edition installed, but there is still no management studio and no books online (that I can see). I espcially like the way it helpfully directs me to go to a topic in a help file it failed to install so I can resolve my problem.

Not to worry though… I discovered that the books online for the July CTP are available as a separate download too.

Also, I’m not entirely sure why it is talking about upgrades. I was planning to have it sit side-by-side, just like all the previous versions. But, it looks like I can’t do that. The BOL says “Presence of SQL Server 2005 Management Tools or BI Development Studio will block installation of SQL Server 2008 Management Tools and BI Development Studio.”

Oh, well… I guess intalling the July CTP in the same virtual machine as the Orcas Beta 2 isn’t going to work – I’m just going to have to install it in its own virtual PC now.

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