Joel Spolsky wrote guest column for Inc.com about how his company recruits the best employees:
I keep hearing people say that they only hire the top 1 percent of job seekers. At my company, Fog Creek Software, I want to hire the top 1 percent, too. We’re doubling in size each year, and we’re always in the market for great software developers. In our field, the top 1 percent of the work force can easily be 10 times as productive as the average developer. The best developers invent new products, figure out shortcuts that save months of work, and, when there are no shortcuts, plow through coding tasks like a monster truck at a tea party.
From a recruiting perspective, the problem is that the people I consider to be in the top 1 percent in my field barely ever apply for jobs at all. That’s because they already have jobs. Stimulating jobs. Jobs where their employers pay them lots of money and do whatever it takes to keep them happy. If these pros switch jobs, chances are the offer came through networking, not because they submitted a resumé somewhere or trolled a job site like Monster. Many of the best developers I know took a summer internship on a whim and then stayed on. They have applied for only one or two jobs in their lives….
Read on to see how they do it: Joel Spolsky | Recruiting the Top 1 Percent
Aardvark’d, the documentary about Fog Creek’s 2005 interns, is at Google Video for $10 (5 minute preview is free), or the trailer is here.
