personality matters

Did a teacher ever call you out for daydreaming? Did your boss? Turns out, you’re not a slacker after all. According to a brain study conducted by the Georgia Institute of Technology, you’re smart, creative, and your mind wanders because you may have extra brain capacity.

Enthusiasm can’t be forced on you. If you’re not passionate about software, it’s difficult for someone to get you to the point where you wake up in the morning excited to develop a mobile application. However, the conditions of your software team can change your level of enthusiasm drastically.

A culture that is carefully built and nurtured in an organization is key to its long term success. While there is no right or wrong answer to which culture should be fostered, a culture that is open and dynamic goes a long way in connecting with employees and fostering a rapport with them.

One aspect of the interviewing process you can’t forget is chemistry. We so often look at someone’s skills and competence in certain areas of the job and completely forget that if that person can’t work well with your current team, development won’t go smoothly.

The Netflix team has to be dynamic in order to move as quickly as the demand of its audience. Because of that, the company only hires senior engineers, avoids actually sticking to process whenever possible, encourages a great deal of employee freedom, and even pushes budgets to the side.

Adopting open source tools isn’t a seamless, pain-free process. The benefits can be invaluable, but it’s important to note that most companies moving from packaged tools into the open source world often go through a technology shock. It takes the right people, processes, and planning to succeed.