Help Me review a potential employee's qualifications

.NET
1

I’m looking to bring on some additional help at my startup. Let’s say I’m working on a site with ebay like features. I need someone to take charge of the entire development from architecture to launch (i will bring on graphics and UX help to polish it off). My background is in business so I’m not qualified to assess the applicants skills and I would like to get some opinions for outside of my CTO. The resume is summarized below. Please let me know critically how comfortable you would be to bring this person on to lead a project with ebay like features.

Thanks in advance.

Skills Summary • .NET Framework 3.5
• Agile Development
• AJAX
• ASP.NET
• C#
• COM / DLL
• CSS • Database Administration
• HTML / DHTML
• Generics
• IIS
• JavaScript
• MS Patterns & Practices
• SSL • Stored Procedures
• SQL Server
• TCP / IP
• Visual Studio 2008
• Web Graphics
• Web Client Software Factory
• XML
Qualifications • Over 14 years of programming experience with concentration on end-to-end multi-tier web applications, expertise in both front-end and back-end development as well as architectural layout and design.
• Outstanding comprehension of the entire web development lifecycle.
• High level of motivation with excellent communication, organizational and problem-solving skills.

Senior Web Developer
• Responsibilities included requirements gathering, design, architecture and deployment of all aspects of site (hidden for privacy) utilizing concepts found in MS Patterns & Practices Model View Presenter pattern.
• WAPI interface development exposing Web Services, localization using resources, e-commerce using PayPal API and marketing duties with website analytics using Omniture were the duties performed.
• Lead role in the architecture and release of site’s latest product (an online backup solution for small/medium businesses) utilizing architecture concepts found in Web Client Software Factory and Visual Studio 2008 utilizing ASP.NET 3.5 concepts.

Lead Web Developer
• Held the lead role in development of complete array of Ardence web applications.
• Proven decision maker in web architecture and developmental languages in all major web development projects.
• Recommended, designed and implemented Ardence Licensing Manager using Web Services.
• Position requires high-level knowledge of ASP.NET, C#, VB.NET, SQL Server.

Webmaster
• Designed and implemented the entire Intranet site using ASP, DHTML, JavaScript, VBScript, SQL Server 2000, and Adobe PhotoShop.
• Conceptualized the revamping of the Intranet by removing the entire site out of a framed environment and improving server-side functionality using COM.
• Improved internal customer relationships through creation of the Intranet Group a biweekly group meeting to streamline/automate company processes and to define new work ventures.
• Administered new software and maintained existing software for Development, Testing/QA and Production servers including version control Visual SourceSafe, in infrastructure role.
• Continued development of the Internet site using Java Servlets and XML.

Webmaster
• Responsible for all of [company A]'s (<snip />) and [company B]'s (<snip />) E-Commerce / Internet issues including all development, content, graphics, SSL security and infrastructure.
• Constructed [company B] from scratch as a wrap around for the [company A].com web application, using ASP, DHTML, JavaScript, VBScript, and PhotoShop.
• Designed the structure and architecture of the entire web application using ASP, DHTML, JavaScript, VBScript, SQL Server 2000, and PhotoShop.
• Point of contact with CyberSource, a commerce infrastructure company, to manage e-commerce transactions and SSL issues on both [company A] and [company B].
• Implemented entirely new front end GUI for [company A] using PhotoShop.
• Infrastructure role: Maintained hardware and software for both development and testing servers.

There’s more but I’ll stop with the more recent.

I’d really appreciate your critical review.

2

Do you have other developers working for you at the moment?

If so, consult them. They’d know best what tools you have available, and what your shop is capable of.

If not, all anybody can really say is that it looks like they have an extensive background and experience, but other than that, there’s no way to really say.

=/

3

lets assume that I’m starting from scratch and the applicant above will lead and develop the entire project alone. Thinking of ebay’s features, and based on the above experiences is there anything that is missing?

Where will this person need help (ignoring man hour contstraints, im only concerned with are there any holes in the qualifications vs the skills needed for an ebay type project)?

Thanks again

4

I’ll be honest with you. I don’t think you’re going to get an answer here. While I don’t see any glaring absences in his technology and experience list, I can’t sit here and tell you whether or not they can pull the job off, alone or with help. It’s as simple as that. You’re asking us to screen your applicant for you, and I don’t think a lot of people would be comfortable doing that.

5

thanks for the reply…im clearly not looking for a specific recommendation or not…i only want to know if there are some obvious qualifications needed that weren’t showing up. it sounds like there are not.

if anyone else feels differently please feel free to chime in.

thanks

6

Since I had a lot of experience interviewing at my last position (including for my replacement - that was odd, but since I was leaving by choice…), I’ll throw my two cents in.

The only thing that scares me is there is a whole lot of buzzwordiness in this. I see a lot of “I did X using Y”, but not a lot of “we solved this need using this.” What I found was that once we interviewed the people, the more buzzwords they used in their resumes, the less qualified they turned out to be.

They may be worthy of interviewing, but the questions better be hard hitting, and it may be worth your while to find an outside voice to help interview. If you’re starting out cold, you really need to find a systems architect to get you off on the right foot. Someone who has the experience and knowledge to know what tools to apply when.

They need to understand (at least at a high level): server configuration, database optimization and project/team management (I’m assuming you’re bringing in more than one person for this)

7

I concur with Dave, and which was why I asked if you had other people on your team to consult. Here’s an example of the buzzwordines mentioned:

Webmaster
• Designed and implemented the entire Intranet site using ASP, DHTML, JavaScript, VBScript, SQL Server 2000, and Adobe PhotoShop.

If you interview this person, make sure to ask in-depth questions about how each of the technologies were used and to what degree he was involved in each. Did they use stored procedures in their SQL database? What was the app architecture? Did they have MTS COM objects that served the ASP client? Did they utilize Users and Roles? Ask them to explain how each of these things helped solved their business problems.

8

My 2cents is that it feels like he knows the tools well. I would try and get a feeling for how well he understands the principles. A lot of the P&P stuff leaves alot to be desired when it comes to sticking with good principles and conventions, and the Web Client Software Factory was one of the worst

I would question him about Agile Development. I’ve seen that on a lot of CVs and further questioning usually uncovers that they haven’t fully experienced Agile. I see no mention of Test Driven Development, Continous Integration or any tools related to them, these are important technical components of Agile Development. TDD is fast becoming an important aspect of .Net development, and you really want to pick up Senior guys that have commercial exposure.

9

From my experiences with interviewing and hiring people, I have learnt that CVs and qualifications do not really mean much. I have interviewed poeple that have a lot more qualitfications than I do, but were otherwise quite useless.

And I also agree with previous comments, usually the more buzz words in CVs = more bull and less knowledge. Very hard to say that the guy is really like, however, based on qualifications, he SHOULD be abel to handle it. But there is far from a sertinty. You will also want some1 that understands scailing and issues involved with that.

10

It seems as though they have the experience with online commerce, dealing with Payment Gateways, and user intranets; which is pretty much the sum of what you will be doing.

They also have lead roles in their history and claim to understand the SDLC (Systems Development Lifecycle), so I guess you just need to drill them with the CTO to get an in-depth explanation on how they went about implementing each as well as handling a team and project.

Most people will claim to have done a lot, but when asked to explain they can’t give details.

Drew