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by aturek 3536 days ago
I don't agree. I've seen some very junior people change their attitudes rapidly (for the better) when working on a team; if we wrote them off immediately we'd lose out on a lot of promising people.

I was also one of those developers and have since changed my ways :)
2 comments
GigabyteCoin 3536 days ago
Our definitions of "over confident assholes" may differ, perhaps? :)

Absolutely however I do agree with you. If a young developer doesn't integrate into a team role immediately, that's no reason to not hire him.

A lot of great developers are so great because they've spent years alone with their computers just cranking out code. So the best ones won't have the greatest social skills.

But if the kid's still having trouble integrating into their team role after their 6 month probationary period, for example, I personally wouldn't vouch for them any longer.

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ewjordan 3536 days ago
If there are five equally inexperienced applicants in the wings that will get along with everyone without having an attitude-smackdown first, then that's absolutely a reason not to hire them.

The worst problems I've ever seen on teams spring from people that are arrogant and standoffish, followed closely by people that are too dogmatic about technical minutiae and best practices in the face of situations that require flexibility (my classic example is the prototyping team that spent two weeks setting up an automated testing and deployment infrastructure, even though they only had six weeks to do their game prototype).

I'd take a pleasant junior that's really green but is happy to learn how to code better over a more technically proficient asshole that needs to have manners jammed down their throat any day - tech skills can be taught to a newbie, personality cannot. People have had a couple decades to cement personality habits as junior programmers, so those are mostly fixed, whereas tech skills are super fresh and malleable.

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paulddraper 3536 days ago
Yes, we might always change someone: a friend, a spouse, an employee.

But that's a risk; depending on that is ill-advised.

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