Would you hire a software developer with this profile?

Question

Strengths:
- Decades of experience overall.
- Experience in various environments, most notably game, web and mobile development.
- Willingness to learn and to adapt to new environments.
- Obsession with international standards and other boring technical details.
- Lots of patience, particularly when dealing with menial tasks.
- Rather cheap labour.

Weaknesses:
- Fairly old.
- Very shy and avoiding of contact with other people.
- http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AttentionDeficitOOHSHINY
- Prone to get lost in the details while missing the big picture.
- Bad at understanding real world problems, particularly those about money and business.
- Impractical and unquestioning of motives and goals. He'll just do what he's asked to do, often quite literally, yielding technically-correct applications that may not be adequate at solving the problem in question.
- Bad at expressing himself in layman terms.
- Talking to him is a waste of time. He'll just answer with a blank stare. Better write him an e-mail.

Would you hire someone with these quirks? What kind of position would you offer him?

Real Estate pro · Accepted Answer

Yes, but he needs to be managed properly for the job you are hiring him for, he needs a handler. A handler that understands his strengths and weakness, it need not be a full time job but it would have to be done.

Old guys like this can have skills that just aren't found in todays younger work force, totally dependent on what you need them to do.

stu w · Answer

I have managed several people matching most of those descriptions.  I just adjusted my management style, approach and tasks based up skills and weaknesses.

Would you hire a software developer with this profile?

2 respuestas