Why being a polyglot is good for you, but bad for your boss. #softwaredevelopment #projectmanagement #cloudtechnologies
We all know at least a handful of languages. For me Ruby is my bread and butter, both for application development and UI automation, I use CoffeeScript for my web based scripting, and Bash is my go to for server management, deployment, backup scripting, etc. That's three languages right off the bat, and we haven't even touched on PHP, SQL, HTML,... the list goes on. This improves our employability, and allows us to attend a variety of meetups. As Andrew Binstock points out in the article (link below), this is mainly due to web apps and the cloud. Both are multi-language beasts that require a broad skill set to develop.
And that's where the headache begins for your project manager. How does he assemble the correct team anymore? Where do the lines in the sand lie with regard to division of labour? How on earth will he know what language to test potential new hires on in their interviews?
We could argue that the agile mentality of "we're all engineers, there are no lines in the sand" solves this dilema. And I think it does, to a point. But shouldn't there be a go to guy for C++? Shouldn't Andy be recognised for his outstanding Node.js work? And is it fair to make a candidate write Fizz Buzz in four different languages during his interview? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts in the comments below, or tweet me instead.
Node.js FTW, JavaScript on the client and server ;)
ReplyDeleteUltimate Candidate FizzBuzz Shootout: conducted in as many languages and their sub/super-sets as is possible within the time provided. Extra points for writing a transcompiler during the interview.
ReplyDeleteI'd employ someone who has the right mentality - the willingness to learn what's required *and* the ability to choose the correct tool/approach - over what languages they already know, any day. Although I realise that's much harder to find in a person, eventually all your training will give you a crack team ready for anything... But I readily admit that if a job just needs doing quickly and well, and there's no time for education - I guess you've got to select someone with the exact skills you need!
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