Product Description

A guide to attracting, recruiting, interviewing, and hiring the best technical talent. - A comprehensive system for hiring top-notch technical employees - Packed with useful information and specific advice written in a breezy, humorous style - Learn how to find great people—and get them to work for you—in an afternoon! 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. In this brief book, Joel reveals all his secrets—from his years at Microsoft, and as the co-founder of Fog Creek Software—for recruiting the best developers in the world. You’ll learn: - How to create a pipeline of excellent developers using internships—and why this is not optional - How to build a workplace where the best programmers want to work - The secrets to reading resumes, interviewing technical people, and deciding when to make an offer If you’ve ever wondered what you should be looking for in a resume, if you’ve ever struggled to decide whether to hire someone at the end of an interview, or if you’re wondering why you can’t find great programmers, stop everything and read this book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26658 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 182 pages

About the Author
Joel Spolsky is a globally-recognized expert on the software development
process. His website Joel on Software is popular
with software developers around the world and has been translated into over
thirty languages. As the founder of Fog Creek Software in New York City, he
created FogBugz, a popular project management system for software teams.
Joel has worked at Microsoft, where he designed VBA as a member of the
Excel team, and at Juno Online Services, developing an Internet client used
by millions. He has written two books: User Interface Design for
Programmers (Apress, 2001) and Joel on Software (Apress, 2004). Joel holds
a BS from Yale in Computer Science. Before college he served in the Israeli
Defense Forces as a paratrooper, and he was one of the founders of Kibbutz
Hanaton.

Customer Reviews

Insightful
A short book, well written and easy to read.

Full of common sense, good ideas and insights on how to recruit and keep the best technical people (and why you want to).

Buy two copies, and give one to your manager.

Excellent, practical advice
This is great advice for techies or managers involved in recruiting software engineers. Having done this myself for 10 years, I can only agree with most of what Joel says here. He quickly dismisses the "trick question" style of technical interviewing, and provides practical advice not only in how to recruit, but how to retain.

A great, quick guide to an often overlooked area.

I really enjoyed reading it
Joel's book is an excellent read, I thoroughly enjoyed it cover to cover and I came away with some great information for when I move on in my career.

Even though developers looking for a company to work for might not the main type of reader for this book, I think what Joel has to say does help in fully appreciating the point of view of hiring companies. The book provides insight in what to look for in a great workplace and what questions to ask during the interview.

I really enjoyed reading it, and would recommend you buy it.