Hiring Engineers: The Curious Dev
Job postings left and right, offers from multiple firms, companies and entrepreneurs It's a reality these days. Engineers are in demand and regardless of where you are in the world, recruiters will find you (given you can walk the talk). And the questions they usually ask? So what's your speciality, are you a fullstack developer? What technologies are you a rockstar in? Have you used Vue? Have you used Laravel? Are you an expert in node architecture? How about Serverside Management Skills? What types of jobs have you done in the past?
These are all the typical questions that we tend to ask when we look to take a new engineer into the fold. When I myself am asked these questions by a potential employer, I do not highlight a specific skill set. Lets all be honest here, how did you get to where you are today? Did you come out of college knowing how to build large scale SaaS applications that run on a node backend?? The answer is no you didnt. So why do we all tend to forget that fact these days? Developers are rockstars because of their desire to improve on what they know and be open to new challenges. Taking on every single hurdle straight on and making it their life's mission to get past it. Learning new technologies along the way and broadening their skillset and honing their knowledge.
Advancements in frameworks, innovative new frameworks and a technology trend can start within a matter of days, maybe even hours. It was only a couple of years ago when agencies were aggresively hiring CodeIgniter Engineers. (Not trying to poke fun at CI, The framework is still a solid one and I am still actively using it today), But unfortunately, thats not the case anymore is it? That's right, the PHP trend is slowly dying and JavaScript Ecosystems are on the rise. Its a hard thing to say, but its the truth, thats where all the traction is going these days. Simply go into Upwork and take a look at the "Web Developers" Jobs. Yup, Angular, Vue, React. Node. and then theres the occasional Laravel or even Wordpress.
Do not hire the guy, that thinks one framework is the only solution to every single problem.
If you find a dev that is unwilling to explore further into the depths of this world we call technology this can be a real bad indicator.
Close Minded developers are usually the first to give up when a problem bears fruit. Perhaps its an architectural flaw, a complex problem, Close Minded developers will always retreat into their shells and say "Well It cant be done." or "Its too difficult". If you hire the guy that always actively looks at new technologies, weighing the benefits of using this technology over the other, this can be a good indicator that this is a Curious Developer.
The Curious Developer
These are real gems. These are the developers that express genuine interest and passion for the job. peaking at every possibility and exploring every option. If you tell him you want a hybrid app built on BackboneJS, his reaction should be "Lets do it." Not "Oh.. thats a bad idea I wont do it.". (Assuming there is a good reason behind the decission to use Backbone)
Perhaps the most defining feature of a curious developer is his aptitude to accept criticism and persevere through hurdles, look for the dev that has a never say die attitude and an openness to new ideas.
Looking for talented individuals is quite a challenge. However, Looking for employers that are able to adapt to a budding developer's curiosity and allow him to be able to nurture his natural aptitude for exploration is also quite difficult. You can take the wolf out of the wild. But you can not take the wild out of the wolf.
