"The Years of Experience Myth"

Jeff Atwood makes a point that, while he's casting it in terms of who one hires in a technical job, applies just as well to public service. He quotes an email from Andrew Stuart that has a telling anecdote:

"I had a client building an advanced network security application designed to prevent denial of service attacks. I sent them person after person and they kept knocking them back. The reason was almost always because the person "didn't have enough low level TCP/IP coding experience." The people I sent had done things like design and develop operating systems, advanced memory managers and other highly sophisticated applications. But my client wasn't interested. They required previous hands on experience coding low level TCP/IP. Eventually I got an application from a very bright software engineer who almost single-handedly wrote an Amiga emulator, but had little or no experience doing low level TCP/IP coding.

I told the client, "I have a great guy here who has no experience doing low level TCP/IP coding and I think you should hire him." They were extremely skeptical. I pushed hard to get an interview. "Look, this guy is a superb software engineer who doesn't have low level TCP/IP coding experience now, but if you employ him, within 3-6 months you will have a superb software engineer who does have low level TCP/IP coding experience."

They interviewed him and gave him the job. Within a matter of weeks it was clear he was the smartest programmer in the company. He quickly mastered low level TCP/IP coding and his learning went well beyond that of the other coders in the company. Every time I talk to that client he raves on about this employee, who is now the technical backbone of the company. That company no longer focuses its recruitment on candidates that exactly match previous experience with the required technologies. Instead they focus on finding and employing the smartest and most passionate engineers."

Atwood goes on:

This toxic, counterproductive years of experience myth has permeated the software industry for as long as I can remember. Imagine how many brilliant software engineers companies are missing out on because they are completely obsessed with finding people who match-- exactly and to the letter-- some highly specific laundry list of skills.

Somehow, they've forgotten that what software developers do best is learn. Employers should be looking for passionate, driven, flexible self-educators who have a proven ability to code in whatever language -- and serving them up interesting projects they can engage with.

I mean, that's the thing. Hillary more and more sounds like someone justifying the ridiculous HR requirements that everyone knows has nothing to do with doing the job.

Separated at Birth? (Bailey/Lake)

Anyone remember Twin Sons of Different Mothers by Dan Fogelberg and Tim Weisberg? That creepy cover, with a pre-Photoshop piece of manipulation to make them look alike, when they were only vaguely so?

It's in that spirit that I present to you the following conundrum:

Bill Bailey
jaylake

Or, to get a better sense of Mr. Bailey (for those of you who may not have seen Black Books):

((This used to point to a bunch of YouTube videos. They've since all been taken down for copyright reasons.))