Technical Manager Library: Smart and Gets Things Done by Joel Spolsky

Hiring is often one of the first big challenges new managers face — and for many, it’s their first time on the other side of the hiring process. How to hire people is not exactly taught in computer science degrees, and it is really easy to do it badly. For this reason, one of the primary books I recommend to anyone who has suddenly become a technical manager is Smart and Gets Things Done by Joel Spolsky. It was released back in 2007, but I still re-read it anytime I’m about to do any hiring.

There’s nothing better than working with a team that clicks: people who collaborate well, pull in the same direction instead of infighting or siloing, exchange constructive feedback, and are great at what they do. Hiring well is the fastest way to build that kind of team. But how do you do that?

Basically, just do what this book says.

The title sums up the main thrust of the book: hire people who are smart AND get things done. You want to avoid smart people who spend so long thinking about problems, crafting perfect solutions, and endlessly arguing about semantics that they never get anything out the door. Of course, you must also avoid people who are rapidly shipping awful code. Notice that this doesn’t say “hire people with 7 years of experience in your exact tech stack.” Smart people can pick up new things. If your hiring process is a weeks-long gauntlet designed to weed out people who can’t write bubble sort from memory while you stare them down, I don’t think your process is actually finding smart people OR people who get things done. And that is probably why it's not so fun working on your team.

The book contains some whiffs of early aughts VC-funded overindulgence, which he justifies rather convincingly. Everyone should have a private office with a window! We should all be sitting in Herman Miller chairs! Candidates should be flown out to New York City and put up in hotels during the interview process! If your organization can swing those things, more power to you, but if, like me, you are not really in a position to hire once-in-a-generation superstars for your hot new startup, there are some things in the book that just can’t apply. Though I absolutely agree with the larger spirit of his advice: no matter where you are, treat your people as well as you possibly can while hiring them, and while they work for you.

Over the course of an easy to read 200 pages he addresses what kind of candidate to look for, where to find them, what to look for in a resume, how to run an interview process, and how to keep good people once you’ve found them. I can’t recommend it enough. Go read it!

In future posts I’ll share my key takeaways from this book and how I’ve adapted his high flying advice to the more grounded environments where I’ve usually found myself.