And yet you can afford to wait 6 months to find someone who doesn’t have these holes?
I’d wager actively recruiting for 6 months takes a lot more effort than training someone for one day, for that matter.
As a manager, I find it more interesting to develop someone’s skills than hire a rockstar (and deal with ego issues). It’s more work, and you can’t always afford to do it, but at the end of the day you’ve contributed to fixing the long-term problem by adding one more resource to the talent pool. And it’s way more rewarding, and arguably one of the best uses of your time as a manager.
> And it’s way more rewarding, and arguably one of the best uses of your time as a manager.
I'd say it's also one of the best uses of the time of the more senior engineers who will act as (additional) teachers/mentors.
Having been in the position of needing to explain a concept or even just "show my work" has helped me not just better understand what I'm doing, but sometimes even catch fundamental mistakes in my thinking.
It's also why I like commenting on technical matters on HN. Sometimes forcing myself to articulate my thought to someone else will reveal the absurdity of a long-held assumption, or something similar.
I’d wager actively recruiting for 6 months takes a lot more effort than training someone for one day, for that matter.
As a manager, I find it more interesting to develop someone’s skills than hire a rockstar (and deal with ego issues). It’s more work, and you can’t always afford to do it, but at the end of the day you’ve contributed to fixing the long-term problem by adding one more resource to the talent pool. And it’s way more rewarding, and arguably one of the best uses of your time as a manager.