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Discussion on: Fine candidates

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ssimontis profile image
Scott Simontis

Have you considered using contractors? It seems like it would be way easier to find three competent contractors versus one all-star polygot programmer. PHP, .NET and Node are all so very different that I imagine it would be near-impossible to find a candidate who feels neutral about all three languages and their different approaches.

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sroehrl profile image
neoan

Uff. There would be so much to be said about that. So in general, contractors aren't an option as what I referred to as projects are all long time engagements. I would have to go down a rabbit hole to explain how we are structured and how this led to us being in a position where we should recruit 3 people but only have the budget for one.

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ssimontis profile image
Scott Simontis

Oh yes, nothing is worse than the hellish codebase produced by a long line of contractors (dealing with one of those myself right now).

Are any of the systems small enough that a rewrite would be possible. It might be motivating for some candidates. "Oh, you despise PHP? Well, if you think you can rewrite it in Node/ASP.NET, I'm all ears!"

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sroehrl profile image
neoan

The easy answer is no. But of course, reality is a bit more facetted. Especially the PHP codebase is gigantic while the node / .net projects could theoretically be rewritten.

But here is the actual catch: while further developing what is in production, we plan a complete rewrite of the front-end (mainly because we need an exit strategy for the end of life of AngularJS), a process this person would oversee and lead.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. So yes, I am fully aware that we are searching for a unicorn.