The top software developers are ten times as productive as average developers. Ten times. You can't afford not to hire them. But if you haven't been reading Joel Spolsky's books or blog, you probably don't know how to find them and make them want to work for you.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 24 Ratings

How to identify the smart hiring manager - 2008-11-10
Reviewer Rating:
One problem remains for those who in fact are smart and get things done:
More often than none the hiring manager is not smart at all :)
I experienced that programmers who were hard working and were really good were fired because the managers were not smart after all.
So the theory that those 3% have always a job may be correct if they are in an environment where they can show their talent. But if they work in an enviroment where they are in fact the smartest but surrounded by stupid peers and stupid managers well that is an other story.
Also it is an old story about the smart PhD, who did not get things done (prooving some kind of programming concept etc.). For me hiring a PhD means that you only have to deal with the question if he gets things done and not if he is smart, since that he already did proove.
Anyway please write a book about how the smart programmer might identify an applicable working environment for himself. (I.e. find the smart hiring manager / smart group / peers who get their stuff done etc. )

What kind of talent do you want? But fantastic on process - 2009-11-15
Reviewer Rating:
I have to believe this book is geared to a startup or small company - because it's my experience the best 2-3% won't last because of excessive bureaucracy and politics and it's unlikely HR will cough up the money for them in the first place. Plus - does the IT environment you're in really really promote creativity? Most of the time that doesn't happen. That's why I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 - the goal of getting the top 2-3% as your mission critical base is godlike advice but not practical where real people live there will always be a manager, CTO or CEO somewhere cutting "costs" or outsourcing and sabotaging this effort.

For me, I'd prefer to have a person that has great social skills, enjoys discovering the business and how it runs, is motivated by doing the full cycle of system analysis and all tiers of coding beginning to end effortlessly with no supervision, good with supporting the customers and is passionate about the ownership and creativity that entails than someone who understands pointers and recursion and can do the short programming quiz on the interview effortlessly - and essentially has little interest in doing anything but coding (albeit extremely well). I have great respect for creative and talented pure coders and I might want 1 or 2 of those for very large scale projects requiring a group of 150+ people to complete but I've never been good with the "developers only do development" trend and in almost every job situation I've ever been in this kind of ultra-vertical compartmentalizing leads to descoping or cost overrun - just too many people to communicate.

If one goal of getting the best is to reduce communication problems by having 1 best instead of 5 good to maybe, how much better is it to have that 1 person skilled as a great "programmer/project/analyst" and not only a developer?

On the other hand - given that, if the goal is to get the uber-coder Mr. Spolsky is looking for or the type of person I prefer, the process he outlines is fantastic and this is where the book really shines - as one of many examples you never hire a "maybe" and you either know following an interview if it's a yes or not. Even the advice on the phone interview, kinds of questions to ask, ways to sort through the resumes, how to conduct the interview etc I think the advice in the book is worth the cost to buy and read what he has to say.

Insightful, Humorous, and Thought Provoking - 2009-10-22
Reviewer Rating:
I heard about this book on a .NET Rocks podcast, and it was as good as they indicated. There are some general software development project DOs and DON'Ts mainly from the point of management, but the focus is on selecting and building a top-notch cohesive team. My goal was to get a fresh insight into the hiring processes of top software development companies, and the factors considered in outsourcing decisions. This book gave me that insight and it was a "hoot" to read. The author boils down the key points into bullet item guidelines - for example, one was for the interview process, and one was for the physical environment, software tools, and everyday practices required for productive software development. This book is worth purchasing and passing around to your friends and colleagues. The book itself is physically smaller than most books, but this makes it easy to tote around.

If only the world was like that - 2009-06-29
Reviewer Rating:
I enjoyed the read, and one side of my brain (not sure which Side) cheered and said I want to work for a company that hires like that. I want to fly first class and be treated like a star. The other s side of my brain says we cannot treat everyone as a star, Maybe If you are a Boutique maybe you can do so. My own experience says that small elite groups of architects may come up with great Ideas, but you still need to lay the bricks, or frame the house. If you are building Custom Homes that might be fine, but if you are building tract homes, you need lots of brick layers and framers, and if you pay and treat them like architects, you are going to have a lot of issues on your hands. Stalin said that quantity has a Quality all of its own! I gave it a 5 star read but 3 stars for practicality.

Good repackaging of old content - 2008-10-20
Reviewer Rating:
This is a nice little package that hits a lot good notes in a short, nifty, easy to read package.

However if you are a Joel fan then there's nothing in here you haven't read elsewhere.

Not a criticism but be aware of what you are getting.

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