[Sussex] How to tell if someone a really good programmer?

[Brendan Whelan]

In my opinion, the most common mistake in recruiting is that we all 
prefer to find someone just like ourselves whereas any team needs a 
mixture of skills and personalities. I long since gave up on asking 
detailed technical questions and asking whether a candidate used some 
specific editor, version of an operating system, etc. Instead I would 
pose a vague problem telling them that they can ask any questions. For 
example, "my system is running slowly" (I normally had one or my current 
problems in mind.). Most would ask what the system was used for and the 
try to work out whether it was a hardware or a software problem and then 
move onto finer details.  Often they would end up concluding  that the 
problem wasn't in an area where they were an export so I asked how they 
would overcome there shortcomings and solve the problem. It they sat 
there and even with gentle prompting couldn't follow a logical path then 
I considered them unsuitable. If they could come up with sensible 
suggestions and threw in some relevant fine technical details then I 
considered that they would probably be suitable. Of the people I have 
recruited, virtually all turned out to be better than I expected and I 
suspect that is normally the case. However, I did once recruit a capable 
and affable alcoholic but that is another story! Brendan 
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