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by j2d2j2d2
5572 days ago
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I think this touches on PHP's real security issue. It's easy to get going quickly but becomes an issue fast. Smart people tend to move away from PHP, but startups find this difficult. Hiring is then an issue and the bad practices persist. |
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You don't need someone full-time to help develop best practices, help design or architect code/systems, or to do code reviews.
Any startup that gets funding should, in my opinion, get a short-term consultant to come in, take a look around and offer suggestions and advice. Even if it's just for a day. These are resources that have been there, done that, and wouldn't be interested in a full-time gig with the company to begin with. Even if the company could afford them.
Hopefully this isn't too far off topic, but it's something that I see missing from a lot of clients that I get called into. (Not saying these guys haven't done this, either.)
I think there's a lot of value for a startup to validate their work with outside help, especially if they're relatively new to the game. Even if it's just pointing them to some articles or reading for them to follow up on, or just mentioning ideas of things they should look into; it can prove to be huge.
For instance, I'm currently mentoring a few developers/teams on a part-time, couple hours a week basis. Some of it is just being available on MSN to answer a quick question every now and then, other times it's doing a couple code reviews. Other times it's grabbing lunch/beer with them to discuss the concepts of things like how to implement continuous integrated testing, or managing other processes, or discussing new tech that they've heard of. For the most part, they're not paid gigs either. I enjoy helping people do stuff well, and the little bit of good faith help usually leads to some good future work.
Sometimes all it takes is asking the right question to get them to think about things in a different manner.
The last gig I got was for a major video game company. The job involved a .NET stack, which I knew nothing about and had never worked with, not even a little bit. I got the job despite that fact because in the interview I asked them general (admiteddly leading) questions, such as "how are you handling _____, or what is your plan for _____". Even though all of my experience had been in non-MS tech stacks, the technical director that was interviewing me was furiously taking notes. It was clear that they hadn't planned for some of the things I was mentioning, never mind thought of them. But once they heard the question, it was painfully obvious they should have. As a result, a 3-day consulting engagement turned into full-time for two years.
In my case right now, I've sought a mentor in some new tech I'm working with in my current startup. It's allowed me to hit the ground running, and take advantage of their experience. A half day one-on-one made all the difference for me, and will drastically improve the quality of what I'm doing.