I do code in my free time

A few days ago I read a blog post by Ted Dziuba: I Don't Code in my Free Time. This post has been reverberating around the blogosphere quite a bit and popped up on a lot of different programming related sites and even on Reddit and I have to say that I disagree.

I'm not a 20-something anymore since this year, but in my opinion age doesn't automatically mean you're right. It's not because you're older that you know better then somebody that's younger. And why couldn't a programmer have a valid opinion about hiring?

My short experience so far tells me that the current hiring procedures for programmers are sadly lacking a lot of oomph. This certainly is the case with a lot of the recruitment companies that wouldn't be able to tell you the difference between an Apache HTTP server and an Apache Tomcat server if their life depended on it. Mostly it's a lot of talk about anything but actual coding skill, but my opinion about how I would hire programmers will be the subject of a future blog post.

While I certainly wouldn't go as far as not hiring someone that doesn't code in his free time, I do think it can be a good additional indicator, especially if it involves a different programming language than is used at your company. It doesn't have to be much and it doesn't have to be coding per se.

Besides coding it could also be reading, going to conferences, posting on forums or maintaining a blog. Everyone of these activities does not only improve your skills, it also gives the interviewer some extra area's to ask questions about that wouldn't come up in an interview otherwise. It is also a way to distinguish yourself from other candidates, be someone unique and show that you care about your craft.

As you can probably tell by now: I do code in my own time. I made and maintain a couple of small websites, I try to blog a bit and I also code some stuff to support one of my other hobbies (I still have time after all the coding, no kids you know): geocaching. Not only do I code for my own, I also code in my own time for work-related stuff, usually when I get some kind of eureka moment at home about how to solve a problem. If I'd waited until I'm back at work the idea would have vanished.

And now for something completely different...