What Makes a Great Developer - Develop Denver 2015

WHAT MAKES A GREAT DEVELOPERAND HOW DO WE FIND ONE?

Who we areINTRODUCTION

2004BOULDERCODENVER

80+EMPLOYEES

LEADING

ESMPROVIDER

AcquireEngageActivate

150M150M in funding

to date (VC & Strategic)

OPERATIONS

NORTH AMERICA / EUROPE

Using Energy Intelligence to enable a

smarter market for

energy products and

services

DVLP DNVR | @CJPhelps | August 2105

OVERVIEW

• What is our general approach?

People are our #1 Asset

• Involve all engineers• Interviewing takes precedence• Take hiring seriously

OVERVIEW

• Marketing• Recruiters• Interviewing• Salaries and

Negotiation• Offer or

Rejection• Onboarding

Hiring is HolisticOVERVIEW

Tailored to a Tight Market

• Pursue candidates honestly• No misleading• Real problems• Real coworkers• Respect and Reputation

OVERVIEW

• Interactions• Culture• Vision• Career goals• Turnaround

Interviewing is two way street

OVERVIEW

Rubric

• Culture Fit• Technical Aptitude• Technical Fit

OVERVIEW

VALUES

• What are we looking for anyway?

VALUES

“You can’t unteach asshole”- Barry Hawkins

Culture

• Collaboration• Influence• Communication• Pragmatism• Enthusiasm• Introspection

VALUES

Technical Aptitude

• Clear and focused thinking• Communication• Questions and assumptions• Curiosity• Breadth of experience• Ability to learn

VALUES

Technical Fit

• Wide ecosystem familiarity• Experience building systems like this• Techniques for designing, testing, or

debugging• Scale and performance• Languages, Tools, Frameworks

VALUES

INTERVIEW STAGES

• How do we do interviews?

Up To Three Usual Stages

Phone ScreenConversation not Quiz

Face to FaceCollaborative and Technical

PairingFocused Interaction

INTERVIEW STAGES

Phone Screen

• Conversation not checklist• Culture and aptitude focus

• Phone or video?

INTERVIEW STAGES

Phone Screen Evolution

• Before - More objective • Now - More subjective and cultural• Change in topics as our needs change

INTERVIEW STAGES

Phone Screen Content

• What have you been working on?• Describe what you did and why• What would you do differently?• How do you stay up to date?

INTERVIEW STAGES

Face to Face Interview

• Coding and collaborating• Design• Overview of architecture and work• No brainteasers, trivia, grilling

INTERVIEW STAGES

Tradeoffs

• Standardized questions or Organic discussion?

• Apropos to how you work• How far do you drill?

INTERVIEW STAGES

• Collaborative

• Looking at and talking about actual code

• Should look like day to day work

Coding ExerciseINTERVIEW STAGES

Example Exercise - Java

• Basic working class with no tests• Tricky to test as written• Write tests and test drive API

INTERVIEW STAGES

Example Exercise – Web Developer

• Interactively build a page• Reactive elements• Some Javascript

INTERVIEW STAGES

• Domain-relevant

• Focus on interactions

• Complications

Design ExerciseINTERVIEW STAGES

Pairing Interview

• Real code, real problems• Detailed code review or ping pong pairing• How is working with this candidate?• Specific outstanding question

INTERVIEW STAGES

AFTER THE INTERVIEW

• What do we need to do next?

Meet-After

• Meet as soon as possible• Discuss opinions and reasons• What hiring recommendation

AFTER THE INTERVIEW

• All Engineers participate

• Early participation

• All opinions valued

• Calibrate expectations

Involve EveryoneAFTER THE INTERVIEW

Growth and Potential

• Can the candidate grow into these areas?• What does the candidate need to bloom?• Can we supply those things?

AFTER THE INTERVIEW

• Diversity of thought and opinion

• You want people who push the culture

• But only a bit

DiversityAFTER THE INTERVIEW

Measure the Process

• How are we doing?• How are our selection metrics?• Interview occasional outliers• Do the hires match the goals?• What feedback did we get from

candidates?

AFTER THE INTERVIEW

TAKEAWAYS

• What should you remember?

TAKEAWAYCOMPANIES

1. Optimize your interview to your culture and the way you work

2. Hiring is important. Take the time to think about it and do it well

TAKEAWAYCANDIDATES

1. Think about what the interview tells you about the company

2. Don’t tolerate bad interviews!

Image Credits

• https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/1627796840/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/sharif/3056967952/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/aigle_dore/8274730440/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/jdhancock/4261987342/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahbaker/272685583/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/nikio/3899114449/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/4521400865/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/usnavy/5754839937/• https://www.flickr.com/photos/seeminglee/8174347684/

What Makes a Great Developer - Develop Denver 2015

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