{"id":364,"date":"2010-01-14T11:54:39","date_gmt":"2010-01-14T16:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webadminblog.com\/?p=364"},"modified":"2010-02-01T18:53:41","modified_gmt":"2010-02-01T23:53:41","slug":"book-review-smart-gets-things-done-by-joel-spolsky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webadminblog.com\/index.php\/2010\/01\/14\/book-review-smart-gets-things-done-by-joel-spolsky\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Smart & Gets Things Done, by Joel Spolsky"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joel Spolsky is a bit of an internet cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre, the founder of Fog Creek Software<\/a> and writer of joelonsoftware.com<\/a>, an influential programming Web site.<\/p>\n

The book is about technical recruiting and retention, and even though it\u2019s a small format under 200 page book, it covers a lot of different topics.\u00a0 His focus is on hiring programmers but I think a lot of the same principles apply to hiring for systems admin\/Web systems positions.\u00a0 Hiring has been one of the hardest parts of being a Web systems manager, so I got a lot out of the book and tried putting it into practice.\u00a0 Results detailed below!<\/p>\n

The Book<\/h2>\n

The first chapter talks about the relative effectiveness of programmers.\u00a0 We often hire programmers and pay the good ones 10% more than the bad ones.\u00a0 But he has actual data, drawn from a Yale professor who repeatedly teaches the same CS class and assigns the same projects, which shows something that those of us who have been in the field for a long time know \u2013 which is that the gap in achievement between the best programmers and the worst ones is a factor of ten<\/strong>.\u00a0 That\u2019s right.\u00a0 In a highly controlled environment, the best programmers completed projects 3-4 times faster than the average and 10x faster than the slowest ones.\u00a0 (And this same relationship holds when adjusting for quality of results.)\u00a0 I\u2019ve been in IT for 15 years and I can guarantee this is true.\u00a0 You can give the same programming task to a bunch of different programmers and get results from \u201cHere, I did it last night\u201d to \u201cOh, that\u2019ll take three months.\u201d\u00a0 He goes on to note other ways in which you can get 10 mediocre programmers that cannot achieve the same \u201chigh notes\u201d as one good programmer.\u00a0 This goes to reinforce how important the programmer, as human capital, is to an organization.<\/p>\n

Next, he delves into how you find good developers.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the easy answers don\u2019t work.\u00a0 Posting on monster.com or craigslist gets lots of hits but few keeps.\u00a0 Employee referrals don\u2019t always get the best people either.\u00a0 How do you?\u00a0 He has three suggestions.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Go to the mountain<\/li>\n
  2. Internships<\/li>\n
  3. Build your own community<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u201cGo to the mountain\u201d means to figure out where the smart people are that you want to hire, and go hang out there.\u00a0 Conferences.\u00a0 Organizations.\u00a0 Web sites.\u00a0 General job sites are zoos, you need venues that are more specifically spot on.\u00a0 Want a security guy?\u00a0 Post on OWASP or ISSA forums, not monster.<\/p>\n

    We do pretty well with internships, even enhancing that with company sponsored student sourcing\/class projects and a large campus recruiting program.\u00a0 He has some good sub-points however \u2013 like make your offers early.\u00a0 If you liked them as an intern, offer them a full-time job at that point for when they graduate, don’t wait.\u00a0 Waiting puts you into more of a competitive situation.\u00a0 And interns should be paid, given great work to do, and courted for the perm job during the internship.<\/p>\n

    Building a community \u2013 he acknowledges that\u2019s hard.\u00a0 Our company has external communities but not really for IT.\u00a0 For a lot of positions we should be on our our forums like fricking scavengers trying to hire people that post there.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Chapter 3 is interesting; it\u2019s a \u201cField Guide to Developers.\u201d\u00a0 It seems obvious, but to get the best developers working for you, you need to be showing that you\u2019re the kind of place they want to work.\u00a0 What does the wily developer like?<\/p>\n

    First, there\u2019s the physical workspace.\u00a0 Does it look cool or awful?\u00a0 You have to turn around and take a look at yourself as an outsider would.\u00a0 A big monochrome cube farm, with crappy chairs and computers, and a lobby with wilting plants in it is a warning sign to developers to stay away.\u00a0\u00a0 Private offices with Aeron chairs and dual monitors say \u201cno really, we do consider our people more than interchangeable parts.\u201d\u00a0 You can consider these kinds of things luxuries, but good programmers can go a hundred other places that have them.\u00a0 We only bat about .500 on this, and that\u2019s mostly due to our beautiful campus.<\/p>\n

    Side note – we had one guy interview here, who when asked what he found important about a job, replied “a comfy chair and nice monitor.”\u00a0 It’s OK for that to be important to you but when it’s first thing out in an interview, it makes you seem like you are an entitlement fan and don’t really care about your work – we passed on that guy.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 Wrong?\u00a0 Chime in with a comment.<\/p>\n

    Next, there\u2019s the interpersonal environment.\u00a0 Are programmers treated well in the organization, or are they typists given orders from on high?\u00a0 What are their colleagues like \u2013 when they meet people during the interviews, they are always asking themselves \u201cdo I want to work with this person?\u201d\u00a0 Grumpy, bedraggled, unprepared, or distracted says \u201cno.\u201d\u00a0 He notes at Fog Creek they started with the old Microsoft hiring maxim of \u201cSmart, and gets things done\u201d but soon learned that they (unlike Microsoft) needed to add a third clause, \u201cNot a jerk.\u201d\u00a0 Does it look like they\u2019ll be given responsibility and autonomy?\u00a0 Is the environment rife with politics?\u00a0 Will they be working with cool new technology, on something interesting?\u00a0\u00a0 Can they identify with the company or otherwise be attracted by its goals?\u00a0 Even \u201cside\u201d goals like a wellness program or recycling drive count here.\u00a0 For anyone who hasn\u2019t noticed, this is the \u201cme\u201d generation.\u00a0 Will I<\/em> like working there, will it be happy and beneficial for me day in, day out?<\/p>\n

    He also notes another truism that too many people don\u2019t believe, which is what programmers don\u2019t care about \u2013 money.\u00a0 (Within reason of course.)\u00a0 It\u2019s very low on the list and usually only comes up when the other factors are seen as undesirable.<\/p>\n

    \u201cSorting Resumes\u201d is the topic of Chapter 4.\u00a0 He acknowledges how terrible a tool the average resume and cover letter are in terms of conveying anything you really want to know about a candidate.\u00a0 You can\u2019t hire from them, you can only screen out people you clearly don\u2019t want to hire from them.<\/p>\n

    Joel\u2019s criteria for sorting resumes are:<\/p>\n