Mohamed Sanaulla wrote:what is the criteria you would use to decide a good developer?
It's a combination of a number of things: openness to constructive criticism, critical thinking, coachability, eagerness to learn, attitude, general knowledge of programming concepts, knowledge of design principles and
patterns, knowing how to use tools, resourcefulness. I don't do interviews; I do auditions when I hire and I'll spend up to two hours working closely with the candidate to get a sense for these intangibles.
I look more at hiring
people, not just declared skills. New techniques and technologies are things that can be taught, given the right person. If you don't have the right person, the effort you put into coaching, mentoring, and trying to help them develop is often wasted and that's frustrating. My success rate with this approach is very high but it also takes a lot of effort on my part, which I don't mind too much since it's really par for the course of my job.