How to hire a chemical for a Python/Django developer job

Half a year ago there was this guy applying for a Django job with my company. He was a chemical guy. Hence no tech experience at all. He said he just started some html/css courses in the evening hours and is paying the classes himself.

So I asked him to do the django tutorial. A stupid copy and paste exercise, but as I’m doing this frequently, you would be thrilled to see how many different versions of bad and good code derive from there.

He did it. Sufficienlty. Not more, not less — and I invited him for an interview.

So there he was, sitting in front of me. Tattoos, Hoodie, slick guy. What to ask? He had no glue of technology, I had no glue of chemicals.

I asked him to fix the dish washer.

> What?

> The dish washer!

> Is it broken?

> No!

> ???

> Imagine it is broken. Water would be coming from underneath it. Fix it! How would you do that?

First thing he did: he stood up.

… and went to the dish washer to see. Second thing, he analysed and proposed potential reasons along with a potential solution.

Hired.

—-

2 months later my senior dev said: he is writing mock objects for testing api requests, something most people he knows haven’t even done yet.