Difficulty Finding Python Developers

[Peter Hansen]

Paul Morrow wrote:

> We've worked hard to convince our company to migrate our core
> applications to Python, and now we're looking for a Python developer
> in Atlanta to handle a short-term (approx. 3 month) project.  But our
> initial searches have been fairly unsuccessful.  We haven't actually
> posted a job on Monster, but we have been talking with various
> headhunters in our area and they don't have many resumes that show
> Python experience.  An so now, of course, mgt is wondering whether
> selecting Python was a mistake.
> 
> As anyone had a similar experience?  Suggestions?

Don't hire "Python programmers".  I successfully staffed a team
with over twenty five developers over the last five years, without
once hiring anyone who was a "Python programmer".  I did make an
attempt to hire people who were good at programming, who had
diverse backgrounds, strong communication skills, brains between
their ears, and so on.  Only one of the people hired, as I recall,
had actually used Python (and then only briefly) prior to working
for me.

In only a couple of cases (where they turned out not to fit the
above description too well) did anyone take more than about a week
to become productive in Python, maybe two or three weeks max.

I would actually suggest, however, that instead of hiring someone
new for the position, take one of your talented existing programmers
and have him or her learn Python while starting on this project.
If the project goes well, you can more easily make the case for
doing other projects with Python, and you might in the meantime
have found some actual "Python programmers".  I still wouldn't
hire them, however, if they didn't fit the afore-mentioned criteria...

-Peter