A guide to attracting, recruiting, interviewing, and hiring the best technical talent.
A comprehensive system for hiring top–notch technical employees
Packed with useful information and specific advice written in a breezy, humorous style
Learn how to find great people—and get them to work for you—in an afternoon!
The top software developers are ten times as productive as average developers. Ten times. You can’t afford not to hire them. But if you haven’t been reading Joel Spolsky’s books or blog, you probably don’t know how to find them and make them want to work for you.
In this brief book, Joel reveals all his secrets—from his years at Microsoft, and as the co–founder of Fog Creek Software—for recruiting the best developers in the world. You’ll learn:
How to create a pipeline of excellent developers using internships—and why this is not optional
How to build a workplace where the best programmers want to work
The secrets to reading resumes, interviewing technical people, and deciding when to make an offer
If you’ve ever wondered what you should be looking for in a resume, if you’ve ever struggled to decide whether to hire someone at the end of an interview, or if you’re wondering why you can’t find great programmers, stop everything and read this book.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Full of tidbits
Reviewed by XPSD Member Jane Prusakova
This book is full of tidbits on how to go about the business of
software development: find and attract smart people, interview and
select people to hire, build and manage teams, even how to delegate
decision-making. Most of the wisdom makes sense, if only in some
circumstances, and the rest is either nonsense or simply outdated.
Joel writes a very popular blog (check out
http://joelonsoftware.com/), and ... Read More
Rating: - Not much new here
I've been developing software for fifteen years but picked up this book to gain insights into hiring practises of a solid software company in Fog Creek software.
Honestly, I did not learn much new here. Find the brightest developers you can find (hiring them right out of college is best Joel says), pay them well, give them good working conditions and treat them with respect.
Also, value problem solving skills over technical knowledge in the hiring phase.
OK, maybe I did learn a ... Read More
Rating: - A perfect reference
Confession: I'm a long time fan of Joel Spolsky and his writing, and this book is no exception.
In usual Joel style, it's a very easy, witty and insightful read. He tell you to set the hiring bar high and shows some simple ways of separating the potentially high performing from those less capable.
Contents:
- Hitting the High Notes
- Finding Great Developers
- A Field Guide to Developers
- Sorting Resumes
- The Phone Screen
- The Guerrilla ... Read More
Rating: - Big ideas in a small shell
When I got this book, I was quite surprised how small it is. But there is a lot of useful information in it and it's fun to read (as You can expect from Joel). It's well worth its 12 bucks. I wish more people, who are hiring or managing people, would read this book and follow at least some of ideas in it.
It was fun to find out that Joel mentions Estonia (on page 75), a little beautiful country in Eastern Europe, where I'm living.
Rating: - Gives some good advice
Overall I think the book is worth the read but I feel that the author does take some things a bit too far (pick interviewees up in a limo!?). The book has enough good points to outweigh the bad. Nice short read that can be read in a day and worth the $10.
- Full of tidbits
- Big ideas in a small shell
