Should You Avoid Hiring Engineers Who Are Too Good?

December 7, 2012 at 3:44 AM by Jon Bischke

This Quora thread entitled "Should companies avoid hiring programmers who are too good as they are unlikely to want to be told what to do?" elicited some interesting responses.

From Andrew Gumperz:

I recommend that you strictly avoid the best programmers. In fact, why stop there? Fire anyone who solves a problem successfully.

You will be doing yourself a favor. The incompetents remaining on staff will do whatever they are told, since they won't be able to do anything else.

From Jonah Williams:

If a company has non-trivial problems to solve and can find an expert to solve them then I think that's a clear win. Such an expert is unlikely to want to be told what to do at a micro-managing level but that's a problem with the management style not a fault of the expert.

From Ian McCullough:

A bad cultural fit can really damage the productivity of both the organization and the otherwise talented person. With the understanding that the best service that one can often do is to challenge the thinking of others (especially when thinking has become "conventional"), I believe that part of being a good programmer is being a good team member in an organization that suits you.

And from our friend Alex Deve at WhiteTruffle:

Hire the best. They join your team because they believe in your vision. Don't tell them what to do. If they're that good, they will get you where you want to be.

What do you think?

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