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Smart and Gets Things Done: Joel Spolsky's Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent 1st ed. Edition

by Avram Joel Spolsky (Author)

111 ratings

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A "good" programmer can outproduce five, ten, and sometimes more run-of-the-mill programmers. The secret to success for any software company then is to hire the good programmers. But how to do that? In Joel on Hiring, Joel Spolsky draws from his experience both at Microsoft and running his own successful software company based in New York City. He writes humorously, but seriously about his methods for sorting resumes, for finding great candidates, and for interviewing, in person and by phone. Joel’s methods are not complex, but they do get to the heart of the matter: how to recognize a great developer when you see one. The author is the #1 ranked blogger in the technical space and is widely quoted even in the mainstream media. He has a large and devoted following, all his previous books have been best sellers with back list appeal.

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"Programming-employment decisions are a critical managerial process. … Spolsky asserts that ‘the real trick to management is to make people identify with the goals you’re trying to achieve.’ … Spolsky concludes with the self-designed ‘Joel Test,’ which rates the quality of a software team. … Managers, recruiters, and programmers will enjoy this easy read." (Brad Reid, ACM Computing Reviews, September, 2008)

About the Author

Joel Spolsky is a globally recognized expert on the software development process. His web site Joel on Software (JoelonSoftware.com) is popular with software developers around the world and has been translated into over 30 languages. As the founder of Fog Creek Software in New York City, he created FogBugz, a popular project management system for software teams. Joel has worked at Microsoft, where he designed Visual Basic for Applications as a member of the Excel team, and at Juno Online Services, developing an Internet client used by millions. He has written two books: User Interface Design for Programmers (Apress, 2001) and Joel on Software (Apress, 2004). Joel holds a bachelor's of science degree in computer science from Yale University. Before college, he served in the Israeli Defense Forces as a paratrooper, and he was one of the founders of Kibbutz Hanaton.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Apress; 1st ed. edition (June 1, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 182 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1590598385
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1590598382
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.46 x 7.99 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,088,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,087 in Job Hunting (Books)
- #1,281 in Software Development (Books)
- #2,619 in Job Hunting & Career Guides

Customer Reviews:
111 ratings

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Customers find the book concise and quick to read, with one noting it's a must-read for engineers. Moreover, the guide sets a roadmap for successful hiring practices, with one customer highlighting its well-organized actionable advice. Additionally, customers appreciate its entertainment value, with one mentioning how the content is presented in an engaging format. The book's length receives positive feedback, and customers consider it well worth the investment.

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Readability Advice Entertainment value Length Value for money

19 customers mention "Readability"19 positive0 negative

Customers find the book readable, describing it as a quick and wise read, with one customer noting it's fun to read.

"...This a quick, fun, and wise read that will teach you how to attract and recognize the best candidates for your job openings." Read more

"...This book gave me that insight and it was a "hoot" to read...." Read more

"...And after you read this book, you'll want to, because Joel is fun to read..." Read more

"This is a nice little package that hits a lot good notes in a short, nifty, easy to read package...." Read more

12 customers mention "Advice"12 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's roadmap for successful hiring practices, with one customer highlighting its well-organized actionable advice and another noting its relevance to today's programming recruitment.

"...read that will teach you how to attract and recognize the best candidates for your job openings." Read more

"...There are some general software development project DOs and DON'Ts mainly from the point of management, but the focus is on selecting and building..." Read more

"...The book is well organized, and presented in a logical fashion. Some key points you'll learn to address are: *..." Read more

"...Joel is entertaining, thought provoking and has useful advice...." Read more

6 customers mention "Entertainment value"6 positive0 negative

Customers find the book entertaining, with one mentioning that the good advice is presented in an engaging format.

"...This a quick, fun, and wise read that will teach you how to attract and recognize the best candidates for your job openings." Read more

"...Joel is entertaining, thought provoking and has useful advice...." Read more

"...It is short (I read it in about 2 hours), to the point, fun, and has some great footnotes supporting Joel's thoughts...." Read more

"The book is a quick read at 169 small pages and engaging...." Read more

4 customers mention "Length"4 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate that the book is short.

"This is a nice little package that hits a lot good notes in a short, nifty, easy to read package...." Read more

"...It is short (I read it in about 2 hours), to the point, fun, and has some great footnotes supporting Joel's thoughts...." Read more

"Short and Actionable Advice..." Read more

"Short, sweet, and true guide to hiring..." Read more

3 customers mention "Value for money"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book well worth the investment.

"...This book is worth purchasing and passing around to your friends and colleagues...." Read more

"...is taken directly from his personal blog, but the book is well worth the investment...." Read more

"...Nice short read that can be read in a day and worth the $10." Read more

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Carolina Road
Quick and Helpful
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2024
Verified Purchase

Some of what’s here is becoming pretty dated, but not enough to be a problem. This a quick, fun, and wise read that will teach you how to attract and recognize the best candidates for your job openings.

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CyberNavyFTMVeteran
Insightful, Humorous, and Thought Provoking
Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2009
Verified Purchase
I heard about this book on a .NET Rocks podcast, and it was as good as they indicated. There are some general software development project DOs and DON'Ts mainly from the point of management, but the focus is on selecting and building a top-notch cohesive team. My goal was to get a fresh insight into the hiring processes of top software development companies, and the factors considered in outsourcing decisions. This book gave me that insight and it was a "hoot" to read. The author boils down the key points into bullet item guidelines - for example, one was for the interview process, and one was for the physical environment, software tools, and everyday practices required for productive software development. This book is worth purchasing and passing around to your friends and colleagues. The book itself is physically smaller than most books, but this makes it easy to tote around.

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Jonathan J. Hall
Nothing earth-shattering if you're a reader of Joel on Software
Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2013
Verified Purchase
As someone who has read practically every article on Joel Spolsky's blog, Joel on Software, nothing here came as a surprise. Most of the general concepts, and some of the specific stories and anecdotes were repeats. But it's still an excellent book. And if you're in charge of hiring, you certainly have more than the $9.99 price for the kindle edition in your budget, and an afford to buy this book versus re-reading his entire blog to find the relevant bits.

If you've never read Joel on Software, you should. And after you read this book, you'll want to, because Joel is fun to read (even if you're not in the business of software, you'll be entertained by his style).

The book is well organized, and presented in a logical fashion. Some key points you'll learn to address are:

* How to advertise your open positions to attract the most qualified candidates, while not attracting the least qualified candidates
* How to read a resume to identify the most likely candidates for your position, without relying on buzzwords
* How to do a phone screening
* How to conduct the in-person interviews
* How to treat candidates like royalty to make them WANT to work for you
* How to transform an existing team which may be floundering
* And a bit of a "bonus" section on management styles and techniques, especially as it relates to motivating and retaining good talent

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6 people found this helpful

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john
Good repackaging of old content
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2008
Verified Purchase
This is a nice little package that hits a lot good notes in a short, nifty, easy to read package.

However if you are a Joel fan then there's nothing in here you haven't read elsewhere.

Not a criticism but be aware of what you are getting.

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2 people found this helpful

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Andrew Dennison
Spolsky is the Man
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2019
Verified Purchase
A Good read.
If you are in software development and have never heard of Stack Overflow or Joel, then you need to make more of an investment in your craft. Joel is entertaining, thought provoking and has useful advice. The challenge in hiring smart people is that they may have poor social skills, lack personal hygiene and think everyone is stupid. They get bored with work that is not challenging. So they either over complicate simple requirements, so no one else can understand what they did, or get distracted and annoy the other inmates. Hence the deceptively simple title ladened with meaning and experience.

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RW
Great tips and insight into hiring top techinical people
Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2007
Verified Purchase
Joel hits the nail on the head with this quick read on recruiting the best technical talent (Joel talks about hiring developers, but the principles can be applied to any technical role). As a long time reader, first time reviewer of Joel's works, I know from experience that he speaks the truth. If your job has anything to do with hiring, interviewing, recommending, managing, or investing in technical staff (developers in particular) you must read this book. It is short (I read it in about 2 hours), to the point, fun, and has some great footnotes supporting Joel's thoughts. I already gave my copy to the CEO and will be passing around a few other copies to HR and a Venture Capitalist or two.

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8 people found this helpful

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Robert A. Mara
It achieves its intended goal
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2008
Verified Purchase
The book is a quick read at 169 small pages and engaging. The book meets its intended goal of finding the best rock star technical talent for product development. He acknowledges that rock stars are not needed for many types of development (page 16).

Knowing that he was concentrating on rock stars, I bought the book anyway, looking for tips that I translate to my world where my customers are late adopters of technology and development is usually mixed in with O&M.

I did find some tips. Some just confirmed what I already believed to be true. The most useful chapters for me were Chapter 4 - Sorting Resumes (3 of my 6 dog-eared pages are in this chapter), and Chapter 7 - Fixing Suboptimal Teams.

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3 people found this helpful

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Dzmitry
Short and Actionable Advice
Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2011
Verified Purchase
I'd call this book a short version of practical advice from "Joel on Software" and "More Joel on Software".

I recommend reading this small book instead of those two and get the same value as the result.

I tried many things from this book in practice and it does work or at least provides a good framework to think within. Project management is not exact science, but this book provides very well organized actionable advice derived from significant first-hand experience of the author.

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Brian D. Garside
The hiring bible for knowledge workers
Reviewed in Canada on August 3, 2014
Verified Purchase

This book is essential reading for every hiring manager in software development.

It helps you pick the stars out from the also ran's, and gives you some good guidelines for how to interview, test, and figure out who is the best candidate.

In today's incredibly hot market, some of the ideas are a little hard to pull off unless you are among the top 5% of companies that people want to work for, but even those "out there" ideas have nuggets you can use for yourself.

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daverant
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2017
Verified Purchase
The item was meritorious! Quality of the wrapping was grand. Notably fast dispatch. Seller is peerless and exquisite. A+!

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Ml Veloupoule
Très instructif tout en s'amusant
Reviewed in France on July 30, 2011
Verified Purchase
Livre très agréable à lire. Une de mes amies qui s'occupe de recrutement en a fait on livre de chevet.

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Tim S.
Altes neu verpackt
Reviewed in Germany on May 7, 2009
Verified Purchase
Wer Joels andere Bücher gelesen hat bzw. seinen Blog, wird dieses Buch nicht benötigen. Es ist nur wieder eine Zusammenfassung seiner Artikel zum Thema Hiring.
Wem hingegen Joel unbekannt ist und sich zum Thema Hiring von Softwareentwicklern interessiert, sollte das Buch lesen oder besser noch Joel on Software.
Einen Punkt möchte ich besonders unterstreichen und zwar sagt Joel, dass Softwareentwickler auch von Softwareentwicklern interviewt werden sollen. Das ist wahr und sollte auch für andere Berufe gelten.
Kurz gefasst, eine komprimierte Zusammenfassung über den Einstellungsprozess von Softwareentwicklern.

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Essential reading for a hiring manager for software engineers.
Reviewed in Canada on September 27, 2018
Verified Purchase
Joel makes a number of very thoughtful, clear and concise points about what to look for when talent searching software engineers. It's a short read and I found myself laughing out loud -- I got through the whole book in one sitting. Another really great audience for this book would be HR managers looking to sharpen their skills when hiring technical folks.

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5.0 out of 5 stars The hiring bible for knowledge workers

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars

5.0 out of 5 stars Très instructif tout en s'amusant

4.0 out of 5 stars Altes neu verpackt

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for a hiring manager for software engineers.

The hiring bible for knowledge workers

Five Stars

Très instructif tout en s'amusant

Altes neu verpackt

Essential reading for a hiring manager for software engineers.