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Discussion on: What I would look for in a junior developer

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iameugn profile image
imeugn

I think. you make a lot of good points... For a too idealistic world. I am myself in a position, where I have to hire developers. And there are some points, which can never be truly seen in any number of interviews. Let me give you an instance of what I mean:

The mindset question: Until today, I have had no junior, who answered from a human pov, rather than a technical one. Even if this were the case, the true answer can be seen, only when this soul under pressure from diverse points, gets an angry email/phone call from the customer. We all know the theory, but practically there is a whole different story. The answer can be easily faked and even well sold. For this part, what I have found, it can give a sort of an idea, is having a playing afternoon "interview" with the team and the new devs. We would play high pressure and competitive games. After some point, after they are already under pressure and tired, I would approach them (and not only me) and ask them dumb/ weird questions, to see how they react. It gives you an interesting view. I have had many devs, who are technically great, but really not great characters.

I really like your points, they are very up-to-date and forthcoming. But somehow, I fear, that a good candidate can really say, what we like to hear and check every point of this list, without truly being able to.
Maybe it is high time, we came up with a new method to inteview (junior) developers...

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tosbourn profile image
Toby Osbourn

Maybe it is high time, we came up with a new method to inteview (junior) developers...

YES! I'm fully behind this. I think something I should have said from the outset of the post is that this is my stab with a broken system.

Hiring needs a lot of work across the industry, especially when it comes to new folk coming in.