2012-04-07T22:42:44-07:00 http://davedash.com/ Dave Dash dd+atom1@davedash.com 2007-03-01T00:00:00-08:00 http://davedash.com/2007/03/01/how-do-you-find-good-programmers <p>[tags]programmers, hiring[/tags]</p> <p>I have a hard time finding good programmers. Usually I'm asked to look for one in the most inopportune times. Namely when we're on a tight deadline and it's really too late to add new people. Unfortunately, it looks like <a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000781.html">I'm not alone</a> in learning that the programmers for hire aren't up to snuff.</p> <p>Looking for a <a href="http://php.net/">PHP</a> developer is worse, because there is such a low barrier to entry. If you look for a Java developer or a C/C++ developer there's some reasonable assurance that they either <em>a.</em> learned it very well or <em>b.</em> was taught it formally. With <a href="http://php.net/">PHP</a> the barrier to entry is so low that anybody can claim to be a <a href="http://php.net/">PHP</a> developer. I can safely attest that if you embark on a quest to learn more about <a href="http://php.net/">PHP</a> or even programming in general there's a lot more out there.<sup id="fnr-prog1"><a href="#fn-prog1">1</a></sup></p> <p>I think the best situation is to interview for people during your downtime and keep the communication open with them. In my situation I know more positions that are open that require talented developers versus the number of talented developers I know. So even if I can't use a person when they happen to be free, I can at least pass them on good leads.</p> <div id="footnotes"> <hr/> <ol> <li id="fn-prog1">Early last month I set on a quest to learn more about PHP and learned a lot about design patterns and relating them to PHP. This subsequently highlighted how much more I don't know yet. <a href="#fnr-prog1" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote -prog1 in the text.">&#8617;</a></li> </ol> </div>