App Accomplished: Strategies for App Development Success

8. Interviewing and Selecting a Developer

It’s often difficult for a non-programmer to determine solely from an interview whether a programmer actually knows what he or she is talking about. I’ll let you in on a little secret: It’s often difficult for one programmer to determine from an interview whether another programmer knows what he or she is talking about. This has led to a number of common interviewing strategies involving brain teasers and stupid questions about why manhole covers are round or how many of a certain thing can be fit inside a certain structure. Google, a company started by programmers, used these kinds of questions to hire programmers for years, and now it’s “found that brainteasers are a complete waste of time” (see www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/business/in-head-hunting-big-data-may-not-be-such-a-big-deal.html ...