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Of course, no one here started off as an average or expert developer, we were all beginners writing awful code at one point in our lives. I think you need to consider two main attributes when hiring... 1. Does this person have the right mindset and intelligence to excel as a programmer? Are they a good problem solver? If they run into an issue, do they get frustrated and toss their hands in the air asking for help, or do they start debugging their code, using logic to find their errors, search out answers online, etc. You can see this at any level of experience. If you're teaching someone to write their first few lines of code and they miss a semi-colon, or declare a variable wrong, how do they react, and how do they move forward? Anyone can learn the correct syntax, but can they grasp the concepts of programming? 2. How much passion do they have for programming? Do they work on projects of their own? Are they learning more than you ask of them, for their own enjoyment? Does their day end at 5pm, or do they show up the next morning with a plan to tackle challenges they faced the previous afternoon? If you're hiring more experienced staff, you need to look at things a little differently. However, when it comes to new talent, I think those are the two most important factors - do they have the mind of a programmer, and a passion for programming. |