Employer's Perspective for Hiring Java Developers - Phoenix Chapter Java Users Group discussion forum

"As an employer responsible for interviewing developers, one of the top things that I look for is experience with an open source project. I don't ask for CVS logs, or activity on a forum - rather, I ask very detailed questions about exactly what contributions a candidate has made to a project.

Often times, I'll actually download the code and take a glance through it to see how it's put together so I can ask a candidate questions about how the architecture of a given project works.

I ask lots of questions about what changes they made, how they made them ( i.e. do they really understand the tools they are using? Do they know what a diff patch is? If I'm feeling particularly ornery).

In short, what I'm looking for is evidence that the person I'm talking to is more than someone who sat through a few Java classes while they were getting their CIS (or equivalent) degree, but never really bothered to learn how to be a real programmer.

The fact that you even *have* a CVS submission log will set you way apart from the rest of the field (it's amazing to me how many folks coming out of college have absolutely no experience - or interest - in real world development). Heck, the fact that you belong to your local JUG sets you way apart... One of my first questions in any interview is what the candidate does to keep plugged in to the programming community. If I get a blank stare, I move on to the next candidate. If someone tells me how they've been going to their JUG meetings, or that they spend time on the Java forums - then I get interested.

Learning to be a real programmer is something that takes years of experience - it's not something that you can learn in school. Actually *caring* about becoming a real progammer is something that you are either born with or aren't - no amount of schooling will change that. I would much prefer to hire someone who is energetic and interested enough that they went off and tried things above and beyond what they had to do to get a - I know that I will be able to mentor that person without having to spoon feed them.

One of these days, I hope to interview someone straight out of school and be able to ask my favorite interview question and get a solid answer (hasn't happened yet!) - here's the question: "When you request a web page in your web browser, how do you think that works?".

Such a simple question... When I first asked myself the question, I spent hours searching specs, trying connecting to web servers via telnet and typing http commands in by hand... In my interviews with new college graduates, I ask that question, and almost every single one has looked at me like they couldnt' figure out why I'd even care... Kind of sad. What's worse is that I have serious doubts about whether any of the folks I didn't hire ever went out and figured it out...

Sigh.... I think it's quite interesting that the best programmers I know did not get degrees in computer science. It seems that a lot of schools are pumping out people who can write code - filtering that pool down to find the ones that actually care about learning how to write good code is a huge challenge."

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