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Spotting A Manager Gone Rogue
Before the damage is done, make sure you screen new hire managers at least as well as your developers.
It’s much easier to spot a software engineer who’s been somewhat liberal with their CV than it is to spot a manager who’s been equally fluid with theirs.
For one thing, technical questions can often have a verifiable answer — a solution of some kind, or if not then certainly invite analysis and discussion in trying to get to one.
Talking through this, and the methods use to get there, (rather than a simplistic and ineffective written technical test) is often extremely useful in identifying software engineers who not only know what they’re talking about, but also have the intelligence to know how to apply that knowledge in a practical situation.
Those are the best kind of software engineers, at least in my book.
You don’t have to know everything rote, have HackerRank¹ or LeetCode up to your eyeballs — that means nothing.
I can study a French Dictionary, for example, and learn all of the words but it doesn’t mean I can actually speak the language.
You need to be able to know, communicate, and explore — have curiosity and a genuine interest in computer science to be a progressive software engineer.
