What Kind of Weird Universe is This?
I had an almost surreal experience this morning. To set the stage a bit, I know that good developers are seemingly harder and harder to find. It's been tough given the list of folks we've been interviewing. Now layer on the Rock Star I've talked about in the past and you have to wonder what can really be done about this?
So here's what happened...
I got a chat from Rock Star about the possible values for a field from a data provider we use for Market Data that is pretty much known for it's lack of documentation in the industry. I've worked with this provider for several years, and the people you deal with are nice, and want to help, but the documentation you get is just very bad. No two ways about it. But given that, you learn that the best way to find out what a field is, is to call it with known (expected) output values and see over the course of a few dozen tests if it's what you think it is. If it looks like you're on the money, then you set up bigger tests, and if it holds, you can assume that it's what you thought it was. It's not efficient, it's not even fun, but when you have little documentation and a phone call to the provider yields "I dunno... have you tried it?", you learn that it's better to figure some things out on your own.
But not for the Rock Star, oh no...
"Where's the documentation for these fields? What are the valid return values?" he asks.
"Here's what we have, and that's all there is." I reply.
"That's unacceptable."
OK, that may not be what you want, but you'll accept it because that's all there is. It is, by definition, acceptable, because that's all they are going to give up. I had to actually laugh at Rock Star and ask him Who do you think you are?
I ask him if he's tried the field on a few instruments to see what he gets back - explaining that this is exactly what I've had to do in the past for anyone that needed to know what was what through this API.
"That's unacceptable."
I can't believe this guy. I'm giving him the way to answer his own question and he's refusing to do it because he thinks there has to be a better solution. I get a little upset and simply tell him I'll talk to the provider and see what they say, but that's it. He starts to say more and I simply answer with "Stop talking and walk away." I was getting upset, and didn't want to get to the point that I'd be unprofessional with this guy even though he was clearly being unprofessional in his refusal to even try the approach I suggested.
So I have to wonder - Is this what my beloved industry has come to? Are we to the point that prima donnas, Rock Stars, are the best we can get if you want someone with any real experience? What's happened to all the people that are good at their job, not interested in using new technologies simply for the sake of padding their resume, and are willing to hunker down and solve the problems as they present themselves - not giving in and working with what's available? Are they all gone? Or are they just so well established in their current positions that the only real turn-over is the remainder?
I don't know, but I certainly need to be smarter about cutting off Rock Star when the conversation degenerates to what it was this morning. It's not helpful for anyone. If he's upset with the answers I give him, I'm going to have to tell him to take it to Management. If they back Rock Star, then so be it. But I think I can make a convincing case that me experience in these providers trumps his silly little assertions of unacceptability.