TITLE: These 5 IT Hires Can Cost You an Extra Million
Sub Title: The Cost of a bad hire can be high. Hiring the wrong developer can cost you more than just their salary. Bad hires can cause a company to spend unnecessarily on many fronts.
Takeaways
The Rewriter – They never saw a piece of code they liked except what they wrote themselves. Every time they look at a piece of code, they state “we need to rewrite this”
Why is it a problem – Not everything needs to be rewritten, especially if it is working.
The Resume Padder – They advocate for a specific technology so they can put it on their resume instead of doing what is best for the company.
Example “I know we are already using Xamarin, but we have to use React on this project!”
Why is it a problem – Your company software development choices cannot be someone’s toybox.
The Warm Body – Competence without comprehension. They can accomplish a task, but you must tell them exactly what to do. Exactly what to do.
Why is it a problem – You are draining resources that are needed elsewhere.
The Negative Utility – Take a Warm Body and add on coming in late, leaving early, always needs help or socially disruptive.
Example “He charged the project with 8 hours, but only worked 6?”
Why is it a problem – Each hour they charge (we did not say work), your project falls further behind.
The Alpha Programmer – This is hard to spot. They hide behind their “expert knowledge”. The difference between a really good developer and an Alpha Programmer is ego. Do not let your software project go awry because someone really smart needs therapy.
Why is it a problem – Funding a team to “rearchitect” a solution that can never deliver gets expensive.
How to avoid all of the above – Validate tech skills, but focus on finding people who have good problem solving skills.