Enjoy fast, FREE delivery, exclusive deals and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery

List Price: $29.99 Details

Save: $8.09 (27%)

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns

FREE delivery Friday, June 9 on orders shipped by Amazon over $25

Or fastest delivery Wednesday, June 7. Order within 22 hrs 23 mins

Select delivery location

Only 13 left in stock (more on the way)

[{"displayPrice":"$21.90","priceAmount":21.90,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"21","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"90","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"yWOSDO27Roxcq4%2BAiuROnbVczAx52Oa0NB2tdQ5fZdviVrDgIsJQSw2XnjlfFBaa3wN79Pcg5zJ45eNxSKD%2Bq2cmWgZkZZbFZmidobkNKEV5T2kzTpIZVmzgSX4ktrMYzw3wrK3ITk8%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW"},{"displayPrice":"$9.91","priceAmount":9.91,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"9","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"91","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"yWOSDO27Roxcq4%2BAiuROnbVczAx52Oa0H7cue09jPZKf5XeQ%2Bx6hbvqS305JBZuf1pdxgebo4BidKPZLDxTo36Hr9IC2hgh6Z1SyqVxYlBcvX9oH%2BSs9VNIkto0eb%2FWe1Rgy297k%2BQhkAIrgYsRRX%2BUJ7B4KocSXkpJ01%2BEmUPQo9QQwYN65ckTV7UQ7Pw0h","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED"}]

$$21.90 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Payment

Secure transaction

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Details

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.

Read full return policy

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Friday, June 9 on orders shipped by Amazon over $25

Or fastest delivery Wednesday, June 7. Order within 21 hrs 23 mins

Select delivery location

Used: Acceptable | Details

Sold by YHHWORLDREAD

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$13.98
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: Cycle Book

Added

Not added

$21.90
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.

Sold by: Delta Octantis Books

Added

Not added

$15.20
+ $7.51 shipping

Sold by: surpluscomputerbooks

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

Follow the Author

Joel Spolsky

Smart and Gets Things Done: Joel Spolsky's Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent 1st ed. Edition

by Avram Joel Spolsky (Author)

4.3 103 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Paperback

"Please retry"

$21.90

$13.98

$1.48

Paperback
$9.91 - $21.90

52 Used from $1.48 25 New from $13.98

Purchase options and add-ons

A "good" programmer can outproduce five, ten, and sometimes more run-of-the-mill programmers. The secret to success for any software company then is to hire the good programmers. But how to do that? In Joel on Hiring, Joel Spolsky draws from his experience both at Microsoft and running his own successful software company based in New York City. He writes humorously, but seriously about his methods for sorting resumes, for finding great candidates, and for interviewing, in person and by phone. Joel’s methods are not complex, but they do get to the heart of the matter: how to recognize a great developer when you see one.

ISBN-10

8184894678
ISBN-13

978-8184894677
Edition

1st ed.
Publisher

Apress
Publication date

June 1, 2007
Language

English
Dimensions

5 x 0.43 x 8 inches
Print length

182 pages
See all details

Frequently bought together

Smart and Gets Things Done: Joel Spolsky's Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent

$21.90

Get it as soon as Friday, Jun 9

Only 13 left in stock (more on the way).

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

Joel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designe

$20.99

Get it as soon as Friday, Jun 9

In Stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

+

More Joel on Software: Further Thoughts on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software D

$30.22

Get it as soon as Monday, Jun 12

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

Sold by HATICE KUBRA DONMEZ SARIHAN and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Try again!

Details

Added to Cart

Some of these items ship sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

Most purchased | Lowest Pricein this set of products
Joel Spolsky
136
Paperback
$20.99
Highest ratedin this set of products
Avram Joel Spolsky
43
Paperback
$25.24
This item:
Avram Joel Spolsky
103
Paperback
$21.90
Avram Joel Spolsky
24
Paperback
$30.22

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews:

"Programming-employment decisions are a critical managerial process. … Spolsky asserts that ‘the real trick to management is to make people identify with the goals you’re trying to achieve.’ … Spolsky concludes with the self-designed ‘Joel Test,’ which rates the quality of a software team. … Managers, recruiters, and programmers will enjoy this easy read." (Brad Reid, ACM Computing Reviews, September, 2008)

About the Author

Joel Spolsky is a globally recognized expert on the software development process. His web site Joel on Software (JoelonSoftware.com) is popular with software developers around the world and has been translated into over 30 languages. As the founder of Fog Creek Software in New York City, he created FogBugz, a popular project management system for software teams. Joel has worked at Microsoft, where he designed Visual Basic for Applications as a member of the Excel team, and at Juno Online Services, developing an Internet client used by millions. He has written two books: User Interface Design for Programmers (Apress, 2001) and Joel on Software (Apress, 2004). Joel holds a bachelor's of science degree in computer science from Yale University. Before college, he served in the Israeli Defense Forces as a paratrooper, and he was one of the founders of Kibbutz Hanaton.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1590598385
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Apress; 1st ed. edition (June 1, 2007)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 182 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 8184894678
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-8184894677
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.43 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #243,826 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #235 in Job Hunting (Books)
- #304 in Software Development (Books)
- #657 in Job Hunting & Career Guides

Customer Reviews:
4.3 103 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Joel Spolsky

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

103 global ratings

5 star		58%
4 star		21%
3 star		13%
2 star		4%
1 star		4%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

CyberNavyFTMVeteran

Insightful, Humorous, and Thought Provoking

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 22, 2009

Verified Purchase

I heard about this book on a .NET Rocks podcast, and it was as good as they indicated. There are some general software development project DOs and DON'Ts mainly from the point of management, but the focus is on selecting and building a top-notch cohesive team. My goal was to get a fresh insight into the hiring processes of top software development companies, and the factors considered in outsourcing decisions. This book gave me that insight and it was a "hoot" to read. The author boils down the key points into bullet item guidelines - for example, one was for the interview process, and one was for the physical environment, software tools, and everyday practices required for productive software development. This book is worth purchasing and passing around to your friends and colleagues. The book itself is physically smaller than most books, but this makes it easy to tote around.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Jonathan J. Hall

Nothing earth-shattering if you're a reader of Joel on Software

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 23, 2013

Verified Purchase

As someone who has read practically every article on Joel Spolsky's blog, Joel on Software, nothing here came as a surprise. Most of the general concepts, and some of the specific stories and anecdotes were repeats. But it's still an excellent book. And if you're in charge of hiring, you certainly have more than the $9.99 price for the kindle edition in your budget, and an afford to buy this book versus re-reading his entire blog to find the relevant bits.

If you've never read Joel on Software, you should. And after you read this book, you'll want to, because Joel is fun to read (even if you're not in the business of software, you'll be entertained by his style).

The book is well organized, and presented in a logical fashion. Some key points you'll learn to address are:

* How to advertise your open positions to attract the most qualified candidates, while not attracting the least qualified candidates
* How to read a resume to identify the most likely candidates for your position, without relying on buzzwords
* How to do a phone screening
* How to conduct the in-person interviews
* How to treat candidates like royalty to make them WANT to work for you
* How to transform an existing team which may be floundering
* And a bit of a "bonus" section on management styles and techniques, especially as it relates to motivating and retaining good talent

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Robert A. Mara

It achieves its intended goal

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 2, 2008

Verified Purchase

The book is a quick read at 169 small pages and engaging. The book meets its intended goal of finding the best rock star technical talent for product development. He acknowledges that rock stars are not needed for many types of development (page 16).

Knowing that he was concentrating on rock stars, I bought the book anyway, looking for tips that I translate to my world where my customers are late adopters of technology and development is usually mixed in with O&M.

I did find some tips. Some just confirmed what I already believed to be true. The most useful chapters for me were Chapter 4 - Sorting Resumes (3 of my 6 dog-eared pages are in this chapter), and Chapter 7 - Fixing Suboptimal Teams.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Andrew Dennison

Spolsky is the Man

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 20, 2019

Verified Purchase

A Good read.
If you are in software development and have never heard of Stack Overflow or Joel, then you need to make more of an investment in your craft. Joel is entertaining, thought provoking and has useful advice. The challenge in hiring smart people is that they may have poor social skills, lack personal hygiene and think everyone is stupid. They get bored with work that is not challenging. So they either over complicate simple requirements, so no one else can understand what they did, or get distracted and annoy the other inmates. Hence the deceptively simple title ladened with meaning and experience.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 22, 2013

Verified Purchase

This book goes over so many of the simple things we know but don't realize how important they are in the big picture of things.
The author does a great job of sitting down with the reader and going over in detail many of the things that can actually hurt a business instead of help.

He also gives you a chance to see the other side of the coin and just how much better some decisions can actually help a company if they took the time to consider and implement things.
I agree with many of the things he brings up because i think the author is looking at the big picture of things and definitely working towards having a better company for owners, employees and clients.
If more businesses took his advice i think they would be more happy and profitable at the outcome of their business decisions then they have been lately.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

chad d

Slightly outdated

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 14, 2016

Verified Purchase

Unfortunately I find this book is outdated now. This was the case when technology companies weren't a dime a dozen. Most of the topics talked about in here are no longer present in the technology industry: private offices, quiet working quarters, etc.

Helpful

RW

Great tips and insight into hiring top techinical people

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 14, 2007

Verified Purchase

Joel hits the nail on the head with this quick read on recruiting the best technical talent (Joel talks about hiring developers, but the principles can be applied to any technical role). As a long time reader, first time reviewer of Joel's works, I know from experience that he speaks the truth. If your job has anything to do with hiring, interviewing, recommending, managing, or investing in technical staff (developers in particular) you must read this book. It is short (I read it in about 2 hours), to the point, fun, and has some great footnotes supporting Joel's thoughts. I already gave my copy to the CEO and will be passing around a few other copies to HR and a Venture Capitalist or two.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Brad

Gives some good advice

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 2, 2008

Verified Purchase

Overall I think the book is worth the read but I feel that the author does take some things a bit too far (pick interviewees up in a limo!?). The book has enough good points to outweigh the bad. Nice short read that can be read in a day and worth the $10.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

daverant

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 3, 2017

Verified Purchase

The item was meritorious! Quality of the wrapping was grand. Notably fast dispatch. Seller is peerless and exquisite. A+!

CSOMÁK GÁBOR

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 24, 2016

Verified Purchase

Short, straight to the point. Must have for building a team

Amazon Customer

Happy, productive technical people

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 21, 2015

Verified Purchase

Fantastic book - well notebook almost - on hiring and managing very technical people.

Sam Deane

Insightful

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 2, 2007

Verified Purchase

A short book, well written and easy to read.

Full of common sense, good ideas and insights on how to recruit and keep the best technical people (and why you want to).

Buy two copies, and give one to your manager.

7 people found this helpful

Brian D. Garside

The hiring bible for knowledge workers

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 3, 2014

Verified Purchase

This book is essential reading for every hiring manager in software development.

It helps you pick the stars out from the also ran's, and gives you some good guidelines for how to interview, test, and figure out who is the best candidate.

In today's incredibly hot market, some of the ideas are a little hard to pull off unless you are among the top 5% of companies that people want to work for, but even those "out there" ideas have nuggets you can use for yourself.

See all reviews

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers	6pm Score deals on fashion brands	AbeBooks Books, art & collectibles	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy	Sell on Amazon Start a Selling Account

Amazon Business Everything For Your Business	Amazon Fresh Groceries & More Right To Your Door	AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally	Home Services Experienced Pros Happiness Guarantee	Amazon Ignite Sell your original Digital Educational Resources	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services

Audible Listen to Books & Original Audio Performances	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	Box Office Mojo Find Movie Box Office Data	ComiXology Thousands of Digital Comics	DPReview Digital Photography	Fabric Sewing, Quilting & Knitting

Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities	IMDbPro Get Info Entertainment Professionals Need	Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital & Print Publishing Made Easy	Amazon Photos Unlimited Photo Storage Free With Prime	Prime Video Direct Video Distribution Made Easy

Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	Amazon Warehouse Great Deals on Quality Used Products	Whole Foods Market America’s Healthiest Grocery Store	Woot! Deals and Shenanigans	Zappos Shoes & Clothing	Ring Smart Home Security Systems

eero WiFi Stream 4K Video in Every Room	Blink Smart Security for Every Home	Neighbors App Real-Time Crime & Safety Alerts	Amazon Subscription Boxes Top subscription boxes – right to your door	PillPack Pharmacy Simplified	Amazon Renewed Like-new products you can trust

Amazon Prime includes:

Buy new: $21.90$21.90 FREE delivery: Friday, June 9 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com

Buy used: $9.91

Other Sellers on Amazon

Follow the Author

Smart and Gets Things Done: Joel Spolsky's Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent 1st ed. Edition

Purchase options and add-ons

Frequently bought together

What do customers buy after viewing this item?

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Videos

About the author

Joel Spolsky

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new:

$21.90

FREE delivery: Friday, June 9 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.

Ships from: Amazon.com

Sold by: Amazon.com

Buy used:

$9.91