Field Guide to Programmers

I’m a fairly hands-off manager. This means I give folks a lot of room for independent decision making. However, I also believe in providing team members with a clear understanding of their role and how that fits with the rest of the team.

So when hiring someone into my team, I make sure everyone gets a chance to interview or speak with the candidate. I take the opinions of team members very seriously. After all, they will be counting on this person to take control of their role and deliver.

Hiring good people isn’t difficult when you realize the impact of the wrong hire. Rather, when your goal is building a strong team, you’ll find that the more work you put into the hiring process the better things will turn out in the long run.

Jeff Attwood hits the nail on the head…

No Matter What They Tell You, It’s a People Problem:

It may sound trivial to focus on the people you work with over more tangible things like, say, the actual work, or the particular technology you’re using to do that work. But it isn’t. The people you choose to work with are the most accurate predictor of job satisfaction I’ve ever found. And job satisfaction, based on my work experience to date, correlates perfectly with success. I have never seen a happy, healthy, gelled, socially functional software development team fail. It’s a shame such teams are so rare.

[Via: Coding Horror]