Why I don’t expect a lead engineer to know specific technologies
Makers Academy is hiring a lead engineer. So I wrote a job spec, carefully describing all things that really matter in this role, and realised that the job spec hardly mentions any technologies, despite being fairly detailed.
It turns out that I care about three things, and none of them are described in technical terms (although I do mention in passing that we’re mostly using Ruby/JavaScript).
The first thing I’m looking for is the ability to maintain existing and develop new software products to help the business grow. I care about the person’s ability to identify problems and solve them with elegant software. I don’t care if they’ve got experience with specific technologies like Rails, Docker, AWS, React (except maybe Ruby/JavaScript). This is easy to learn. I care more about their ability to identify a relevant root problem and solve it with high quality software. This is hard to learn.
Makers Academy is in the business of training software developers from scratch. Although our curriculum is built using Ruby and JavaScript, in most cases our developers are hired to use technologies they haven’t used on the course: .NET, Java, Clojure, Scala, etc. Our hiring partners know that experience with specific technologies isn’t nearly as important as the ability to identify and solve problems.
This philosophy is also reflected in our hiring process. We don’t do whiteboard coding or programming puzzles. Instead, we ask candidates to make an improvement to a certain production system and then join us on site for a day or two as if they were part of the team (it’s a paid engagement). We expect to see high quality code but we’re also interested in what improvements will the candidate choose to make and why? That’s the really challenging bit.
The second thing I’m looking for is leadership skills. As someone who will be expected to mentor more junior colleagues, they will have the communication and emotional intelligence skills, starting with self-awareness and empathy, required to help others grow. To be a respected leader, they will need to have relevant experience but also demonstrate the finesse required to know when to step into the situation, and when to simply observe. They’ll know from experience that identifying the real issue behind the symptom — whether technical, business or people-related — is often the most important step. These skills are also much harder to learn than specific technical skills.
Incidentally, high emotional intelligence is a prerequisite not just for the lead engineer position but for all openings in the company. When I look back at how the team evolved over the years — who was successful and who was struggling — I see strong emotional intelligence skills as key to being successful in all roles at Makers Academy, from junior to senior level, from marketing to sales.
We’re building an environment built on trust where we experiment with things like setting our own salaries. Strong emotional intelligence skills are what makes this possible.
The third thing I’m looking for is the understanding of inclusivity and diversity issues in the tech industry. This is an integral part of the company’s set of values, so we’re looking for people who both understand the problem with diversity in tech and have experience addressing it. Does the candidate have specific ideas about how to make our company, our course and the industry more inclusive and diverse?
None of these three things are strictly technical but they form the core of the lead engineer job spec. Of course the successful candidate will be expected to produce well-crafted software, but we won’t turn down a candidate for lack of experience with a specific technology. As the same time, we’ll pay a lot of attention to the three areas outlined above because they can’t be learned quickly.
If this job spec sounds like a role for you, please either apply on our job portal or get in touch with me by email. If you know someone who would enjoy working at Makers Academy, please forward this blog post to them now. Thank you :)
