How to Find Good Developers

Yesterday I was at Drupalcon in San Francisco and one of the panels I attended was called "Monetizing Drupal". A question was asked "How do I find good developers?" Well the answer for me really comes down to three characteristics. I read a quote from Warren Buffett several years ago that gave me this notion, but unfortunately I cannot find the exact source now. If you are interested in who Warren Buffett is then check out Mr. Buffett's facebook page.

Integrity

Is the person honest? Does the person strive to do a good job? This is pretty easy to determine over time. Ask friends, colleagues, ask the person about his (or her) history. Come up with some open ended scenarios and ask the person to fill in the blanks.

Intelligence

There are two types of intelligence. One is built over time (i.e. read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell) and it requires hard work. People who spend roughly 10,000 hours on "something" will be really good at it. So if this person can demonstrate the equivalent of X hours developing for Drupal then you know the relative intelligence level of this person with respect to Drupal development. AND a simple programming task such as building a module should demonstrate this. You can also ask the person to describe how they would build a module to certain specifications. Of course, that means you better know what the correct answer is before asking it or else you're wasting time.

Another kind of intelligence involves the overall view of life. Is this person interested and curious about life? Does he have communication skills? Some would also call this emotional intelligence.

In summary, I tend to look for knowledge, skills, and abilities that fit the profile I'm looking for. In industrial engineering and business these are called KSAOs (lookup Industrial Psychology).

Passion

Does this person have drive? I'll personally take an average developer who is PASSIONATE about the work over a burnt-out guru any day. Why? Because the guru will be crying the whole time and then you may end up with sub-par work anyways. An uptight, self-righteous guru is no fun and a major turn-off.

An average but motivated developer has the potential to go beyond the call of duty. Never underestimate passion as long as the person has an adequate toolkit for the job. Don't get me wrong, if you need someone who is going to write quality MySQL queries (joins, inner and outer) then you better make sure the person understands a join and can write one. The right toolkit AND passion can go a LONG way.

Another good book on this overall topic is written by 37 Signals and is called "Getting Real".

I hope you enjoyed this. I'll try to get more tidbits of advice out the door over time.