An interesting highlight of my day today was that I was approached by one of the other directors at DevProducts and he reminded me that I have to meet with a Design Junior who is interested in showing me her design skills to see if we can make use of, or mould, her skillset so that she could be added to our team. I always love meeting new talent. I know what I’m looking for, but am realistic enough to know that a design junior is… well, a design junior. That pretty much says it all.
I’m ready to be pleasantly surprised, but not listening to the hype of the others who says she’s got some “mad dezign skillzzzzz”. If she has an iota of the design skills that I have been told, that’s part of the way there.
Skill or Potential
The first thing I’ll be looking for of course is Skill – I want this person to have the skillset of a seasoned designer who I can start talking to about a brief and by the time I’ve stopped talking, they will have a sketch concept saying “something like this?” – Will this ever happen? probably not at junior level – but then comes in the potential factor. I am willing to overlook a slight lack in skill given that the person has or seems to have the potential to improve.
Apart from skills and potential other big sellers are attitude and interest. I found that measuring the level of interest a person has in what they do will indicate if they will be able to continue down this career path and attitude will determine how far they will go ie interest is great and all, but if you don’t have the right attitude to execute accompany it, you’ll be starting a lot of things but never finishing it. I hated this about myself when I was younger and make a conscious effort to see things through to their entirety.
Why is Attitude so important to me
To my experience, a person’s attitude reflects what their work ethic will be like. If they are keen and present a good attitude toward work and all that comes with it, I usually look upon them more favourably. Negative attitudes such as chips on shoulders, know-it-all-ism and indecisiveness I can not get by – perhaps I’ll be doing them a favour by not taking them on as the guys in the Development room will eat them alive if any of these are present.
One last thing that I look for as well is how their attitude will fit in with the collective. Chains are only as strong as their weakest link and if there is one, then it will snap that oh so fragile chain of productivity – which of course, is very bad for business.
Why Interest is so important to me
If they come in with a certain lack of energy, to the point where I feel like I’m working hard to try and get them psyched up or at least paying attention during the initial evaluation, then I know that further down the track, I’ll have to keep working to keep them focussed and interested on projects that we will be working on in the future – I don’t want to be working _that_ hard. I _shouldn’t_ have to do this. I love self driven individuals and this is what I look for in people.
I’m looking forward to this meeting tomorrow, win or lose, it should be great!
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Well man thing are differet in developing country like China here.
Back to the old Offshore Development Programmer days I did recruit under the order of my manager, the only thing I care about is healthy… which means no overwehelming excuse on unattendance.
I am a none-brain coder with almost no skill and love on programming at that time, And I was looking for none-brain coder as well…
Every one is useful. What make sense is, a good leader.
My interest is in Cooking.. Never coding
But I can only earn a living coding, sigh…
Hey MeaCulpa,
Thanks for presenting your angle on the subject. I guess we take many things for granted here.
I understand that completely – if the common problematic trend there is attendance due to health issues, then definitely a healthy employee is a top priority.
Employees here are generally healthy – so we kind of take that for granted.
The reason I hold interest, attitude and work ethic is that there are cases where I’ve seen people turn up and do very little work during the day. Attendance though is immaculate.
As a developer, I’m paid to work and not just turn up.
Everyone is indeed useful … when they want to be. But that’s where attitude and interest bit comes in.
What good is a good leader if devs don’t listen to them.
> My interest is in Cooking.. Never coding
> But I can only earn a living coding, sigh…
Though I’m not in your position, I deeply understand what you mean.
Never give up on your dreams man. I’m a firm believer that if you have a goal in mind, everything you do in the interim becomes a temporary stepping stone to achieve your ultimate goal.
Maybe start saving up some money through coding, then open up a restaurant once you’ve saved up enough capital to do so.
Good luck with that brother. Thank you again for presenting your angle on this topic.