What to Look For When Hiring a Developer

A while ago I was thinking about an interview from years back, where I was the one being interviewed for a position at a company. I can't tell you most of the details. I don't remember whether it went well or badly. I don't think I got the job.

But one thing came up in that interview that I don't think gets talked about enough when it comes to finding the right hires for your team.

I was sitting there trying to formulate my thoughts, and the interviewer said: why don't you speak out loud, so we can understand what you're thinking?

What was interesting is what happened after he said that. Yes, I started explaining my process out loud. But more than that, I started to think about exactly what I was trying to accomplish and what I was trying to say. I learned that if I was willing to speak up and talk through things openly, I had a chance to clarify my own questions and concerns.

I've thought about that a lot since. Through more interviews, through client work, through planning things out with other people, the notion I always take with me now is: say it out loud. No matter how ridiculous, no matter how dumb it might sound. That part is completely irrelevant.

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The trait that matters more than the right answer

The more I've spoken with employers and business owners, the more I think this is true: we don't care whether or not you get the answer right. We want to know whether you can critically think your way to the point where you get the answer right.

That, especially to me, is way more important than the answer itself. I want to know what happens when you get confronted with a difficult challenge or a difficult question, and it opens up more questions and more thoughts. I've had times where one specific thought, said out loud, cascaded into ten different avenues and ten different ideas I hadn't even considered. If I hadn't spoken up and said something out loud, I might never have figured my way to a better solution than the one I was already considering.

So if you're trying to find the best people for your team, I think one of the best traits you can look for in a potential hire is simple: can this person speak out loud, critically?

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Be careful with lightning answers

If you're interviewing someone, you give them a question, and they're just firing back lightning answers, you should really ask yourself how they're able to give those lightning answers.

Don't get me wrong. There are people who just understand those questions very well, and there are people who are very, very well prepared for interviews. Neither of those is a problem by itself.

But when you get them into a technical assessment or some sort of working review, that's where it shows. If they can explain themselves, if they can really get into the nitty-gritty details of certain things, those are your real winners. Those are the people who are going to shine and impact your business or your team positively. Because when somebody is able and willing to speak out loud about their thinking process, it also says they're willing and able to communicate with others: to hop on a call, or into a meeting or a group discussion, and figure out solutions to problems faster.

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This is even more true for remote teams

I've noticed that at a lot of remote-first companies, developers in particular don't like hopping on calls. I get it. No one likes to take another meeting more than necessary.

But when your entire team is just chatting and chatting, and never really hopping on a call to figure out what the actual solution is, it hinders your team's growth and the opportunity for your product to keep moving forward.

If the person you're interviewing is willing and able to speak up during the interview, there's a pretty good likelihood they're going to be willing and able to speak up during a client meeting, or in a product meeting where people have questions. It's the same trait I look for when I staff an embedded team for a client, and it's worth weighing whether you're hiring your first developer or your tenth.

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It's hard to fake

Either you have a knack for interviewing or you don't. But even if you do have a knack for interviewing, if you don't really know what you're talking about, it's going to become pretty obvious in the first week or two.

At that point it's pretty easy to let that person go and move on. I understand there are certain restrictions and rules around that depending on the state you're in here in the US. But for the most part, if you really think they're not that great of a fit, you let them go. No big deal. Go hire somebody else.

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These are just some general thoughts. I'm certain I could have more thoughts surrounding this, and there's probably some more research I could do to figure out whether or not I'm right or wrong. But at a high level, I think this is more true than not. And I really hope more people take into consideration what it means to have somebody speak up about what they're trying to say.