TITLE: Dan Luu on Playing Moneyball with Programmers
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: March 25, 2016  2:39 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
Dan Luu's blog is usually both entertaining and insightful.
<A HREF="http://danluu.com/programmer-moneyball/">
   We Only Hire The Trendiest</A>
is no exception.

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 I did my undergrad at Wisconsin, which is one of the 25 schools
 that claims to be a top 10 cs/engineering school...
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

Even though he comes from one of the best CS schools, Luu recognizes
that grads of many other schools are well prepared for careers in
industry.  Companies that bias their hiring toward the top schools
miss out on a lot of "talent".  Then again, they miss out on a lot
of great talent in many other ways, too.  For example:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
 A typical rejection reason was something like "we process millions
 of transactions per day here and we really need someone with more
 relevant experience who can handle these things without ramping up".
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

The people you don't hire won't have to ramp up.  There is only one
problem:  You didn't hire anyone, so there's no way they can help
you handle these things.  Maybe you should hire people with strong
foundations, a little curiosity, and a little drive.  Those people
can develop all the relevant experience you need.

As Luu says, "It's much easier to hire people who are underrated,
especially if you're not paying market rates."  That's where the
Moneyball analogy comes in handy.  I wonder if any company is
doing sabermetric-like analysis of software developers?  If so,
they could develop a durable competitive advantage in hiring.

Software entrepreneurs and companies in my part of the world, the
American Midwest, have always faced stiff challenges when it comes
to hiring and retaining tech talent from the coasts.  Luu reminds
them that they also have an opportunity: find underrated people
from non-elite schools who want to stay in the Midwest, and then
develop a team of professionals who rival in performance anything
you can find on the coasts.

In my town,
<A HREF="https://banno.com/">
   Banno</A>
is a great example of a company that has accepted this challenge.
It's not easy, but with patience and strong leadership, it seems
to be working.
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