Jeff Atwood wrote an insightful article called ‘The non-programming programmer’ recently about the lack of skilled programmers. It struck a chord with me as my husband’s technical director had to create an online test to ensure potential candidates could actually do what they said they could do. All but one got 4% or less, which I could probably get just by guessing (well, maybe).
Jeff wrote his original article on the subject – ‘Why can’t programmers…programme?’ – two years ago and bemoans that fact that not much seems to have changed since then. The interesting thing is the online test Mike Lin created to get round the problem he was finding with sourcing people who could actually code. It might save you a lot of time if you’re hiring – Mike now only interviews people who can write a simple 10-line program.
For anyone who doesn’t write code themselves (or hasn’t for a long time), how else do you know if someone can actually do what they say they can do? And more importantly, why do the candidates think they can get away with it?
