[AlexMuir]

My first filter on recruiting now is: "Has this person built anything I can see?"

A website, an app, a repo on Github. If the answer to that question is 'No' then my assumption is either a) this person isn't interested in the work, or b) they don't know how to code in the real world and I'll be paying them to learn.

I'm constantly amazed at the number of people applying for dev positions who claim years of experience and have absolutely nothing tangible to point out.

I run a small operation so I can't comment on big firms.

TLDR: Build something recruiters can see, and preferably use. It'll put you instantly in the top 10% of applicants.

[toomanybeersies]

I'm not sure why whether I do work for free and in my spare time is a good gauge of programmer ability or that they're a desirable hire.

You wouldn't judge a mechanical engineer by whether they've built a car in their spare time, or an accountant by whether they spend their spare time doing accounting.

Some of us have lives outside of work, and like to spend our spare time away from a computer. I spend 9 hours a day in front of a computer at work, plus probably an hour outside of work doing chores. That's plenty for me. In my weekends, I like to actually get outside and do something away from a computer.

Also, depending on what you do, there's often not a lot that you could do open source. If you're an embedded systems developer for instance (like OP's wife, who is an EE), there's not a whole lot you can put up on Github.

[GoToRO]

I was job hunting recently and I can confirm this. Work as a developer at a previous company is better than work in the open (side project) and work in the open is better than work you can't show, and some experience is better than no experience (but having raw intelligence, willingness to learn, enthusiasm).

Then, even if the work is in the open you have to sell it to them. At one interview I didn't feel very well so I couldn't do this. But the website was on their laptop and they could have try to use it a bit. Instead they relied on questions.

Then you have the not-so-smart but with experience developer that never changed jobs and so they are now team lead etc. They ask you "how long will it take you to learn X". You say "2 months". Their reaction is "this guy is bullshiting me, I've spent 2 years learning this thing, how could anybody else learn it faster?"

Then there are the guys asking question google could answer for you. But because you don't know the answer they don't give you "the points".

After all this, they turn around and complain about how hard it is to find talent.

I'm from Eastern Europe.

[AlexMuir]

If you're in Hungary and know ruby and/or JS then give me a shout!

[GoToRO]

Thanks, I appreciate it! I'm from Romania and I did get a job. Not the one I really, really wanted but the one that came after a few interviews when my interviewing skill got better.

[Jach]

Are you kidding? There's tons of things you can do and put on github if you have an embedded systems background. It's just as rich a playground as web or mobile apps. (Ed: not to mention you can at least have a web page dedicated to showing off your most interesting school projects even if you can't release code.) I do agree though that open work isn't necessarily a good filter -- nevertheless fun side project work is a large subculture and it doesn't surprise me if companies want to get people from that group.

[muzani]

I had one electrical engineer who applied. She put pictures of her projects in her resume. I didn't know if they worked, but because there were a lot of projects with pictures, it immediately put her at the top.

She didn't have to give me any schematics or even explain how they worked.

95% of resumes were "I am a results-driven professional with 4 years experience. Please hire me. I will work for cheap."

That girl was a fresh graduate who showed more stuff in her college months than the "pros" did. She turned out to be the best engineer I ever had, even surpassing my own skill.

[AlexMuir]

I never mentioned spare time or working for free.

[toomanybeersies]

Well given that all my work is proprietary and closed source, I'm not sure what I'm meant to be putting on my Github account?

[simonswords82]

I hire and manage software programmers.

In the majority of cases the best candidates are those that "code for fun". This means that they build shit that they find useful, interesting or to showcase a particular skill or new technology. It would be trivial for them to make some of this work available for me to see.

Where this work isn't available we pay potential hires to work on something for a couple of days.

There is usually nothing on a CV that will convince me to hire a person over and above actually seeing some of their work. In cases where I've skipped the "show and tell" step as we call it, my chances of making a bad hire increase exponentially.