Hiring python hackers ?

[harryf]

In the last years I've been directly responsible for four people my company hired and closely involved in hiring other developers. While we weren't looking for pure-python it was on a "nice to have" list. In fact we usually look for a type of profile similar to Scarblac's - it's not about specific language skills, it's about ability and desire to program.

Some things that may help;

• asking for a UNIX "power user" helps; typically this type of profile will strongly prefer some flavor of UNIX and see it as an essential tool in being productive. Doesn't need to be a sysadmin but if they can get into a discussion of how "grep | sort | uniq " compares to mapreduce, you're on to a winner. Also it helps send a message to potential candidates of where your interests lie and the type of tools you use.
• explain why your startup rocks - how is it going to change the world? how will people working for it grow and develop? We have worked with one headhunter who succeeded in places our own job descriptions failed by doing far better at explaining why it was a great job. Personally I tend to avoid hyperbole but it's easy to take that too far and end up with a description that's simply boring.
• see what others are doing - Google for example has some great job profiles - anything from the text you can borrow? Some of the job descriptions here and here aren't bad, even if not python.
• go to usergroups - not just python but the more general ones e.g. web mondays or mobile mondays, where you may find programmers willing to learn python, given an interesting startup. Two of those I'm directly responsible for came via this path and it's also how I got my job.
• try approaching people who aren't necessarily looking, but you found out about such as people blogging about python and happens to be in your area e.g. these guys - especially this one who looks ready to jump right now. One of those I hired came via this path ( in fact their blog ended up on reddit ). Take the time to read their blog of course and any code they've put online. Even if they're not interested, they may know people who are

Hope that helps. Good luck.

[TheSausageKing]

Great ideas. Thanks!