NZ Recruiter

Software by Rob : Personality Traits of the Best Software Developers

Link: Software by Rob : Personality Traits of the Best Software Developers.

Here's a good blog for software developers to add to your RSS feed. Software by Rob is a blog written by a software developer for software developers - from hiring, to managing, motivating and self-development. One article I like is based on his personal observations of the best four personality traits he's seen in developers that he's admired. The kind that make you think - whoa, I'm gonna quit my job and go work for his startup!

In a nutshell, he finds that the best developers are:

1. Pessimistic in the short-term. They anticipate problems and find points of failure before they happen, but are also optimistic in the long-term - they're confident in overall success.
2. Anti-Sloppy Code.  He refers to NASA's software systems that have zero-defects
3. He sees great developers as Long Term Life Planners. With set goals, discipline to get there in their home life carries over to their work life.This third trait I think is applicable to success in anything - not just developing.
4. Very Attentive to Detail

Hopefully I didn't spoil it all. It's a good read - especially the loads of comments with different perspectives on what the common traits are and aren't.

Why NZ Recruiter?

Welcome to our new blog where we will be focusing on recruiting issues and information for the high tech industry here in New Zealand. This has really become one of the major focuses of our business . And while it has made sense to seperate out this focus from the international work we do it now also makes sense to seperate it from our other blog (Asia Pacific Headhunter). While initially I thought there might be some crossover (and I still hope there will be in the future) the NZ tech market is still a little shy of the outside world and hiring within it. Especially when it comes to Asia.

But I have found in the last couple of years that there are some fascinating companies and personalities in the high tech industry in NZ and I believe that it is time we devoted more of our resources to following them through our blog. I especially think this is true when it comes to encouraging people to take a risk and work for a startup technology companies or to start their own. As a former resident of SIlicon Valley I do believe that the power of the Valley is in the  startup ecosystem. NZ is still in the early stages of building that ecosystem but I hope that in some small way I can help do that through this blog.