a little madness

I always groan inwardly when I see another job ad calling for a “Rock Star Programmer”. Obviously the idea is that the hiring company is after the top talent. In that sense alone it’s kind of stating the obvious. But is this a good way to attract real talent?

I’m not the only person to think asking for “Rock Stars” is a bad idea. However, several of the other posts I’ve read on the issue, while making some good points, dwell a lot on their own definition of a “Rock Star”. They ascribe several traits to such programmers, none of which directly follow from the vague term. That’s not to say that there isn’t a real point underlying these definitions, though.

To me, the big question is: Do you want to hire someone that would describe themself as a “Rock Star”?. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with a bunch of bright people, and none of them got that way by having overactive egos. On the contrary, even if they knew they had talent, they also knew their limitations. I’m certain, in fact, that this trait was key in allowing them to continue learning and improving.

Naturally job ads always ask for talent — but specifically asking for a “Rock Star” seems to go beyond that. Be careful what you ask for!

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 4th, 2009 at 7:41 am and is filed under Business of Software, Opinion, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.