yoak

And of course Mr. Feynman Goes To Washington . I think the ultimate point is that all of his books are awesome. I even liked some of the science stuff. ;-)

It's certainly the case that if they're leaving because they're unhappy that something is true and it is still going to be true when they consider returning it would give me pause. :-)

Even then, it might be possible to convince me if they come back with a reason they were wrong and think the thing is good (e.g. I tried Agile and discovered it isn't better, and my actual problem was this...) rather than just, "I decided to put up with it here..."

This was especially helpful to me. Thanks.

You made a minor point about the advantage of putting you on the same side of the table when you don't use a projector. I think that point is actually huge. I'm frequently an imposition to restaurants getting them to set the seating up at a 90 degree angle instead of across the table for the same reason. It's conspiratorial instead of competitive.

I always thought they were just rolling their eyes at me, but now I know they're deeply engaged in imagining that they're somewhere else.

Seriously, note-taking? I aspire to reach the point where my statement about whether or not my audience should take notes is one of the top five things I'm wrong about.

It's probably a bad sign. Almost no one is in a position to bring that many on board and use them effectively, and I'm tempted to say no one is unless they're already a fair multiple of that size. When you combine that with being open to "beginners willing to learn" which almost no one can afford, it makes it sound like one of the "We need 5 times what our ten guys are doing and that means 40 more." bad decisions. Generally you don't need forty more. You need one or two geniuses and perhaps management and replacement.

This is all based on information in this posting. I know nothing about the company or its situation or even if they really are looking for 40+. I'm just generally suspicious about this sort of recruiting.

I've been a hiring manager for hundreds of programmers over the years at several companies. With the exception of maybe one or two people I was preparing to get rid of anyway, if any one of the people who quit came back during their notice period with this story I would insist that they stay and fight fiercely with any other forces in the company that might resist it. It also wouldn't lower my esteem for the person. I'd be happy that he or she felt that he or she could come back. I have been happy when they've come back. It's never been as soon as this, but I've had people leave to try startups or other jobs and had them not work out. The good ones leave to try things sometimes. I'm happy to be good enough that when it sometimes doesn't work out, even though it is a time to consider many options, they elect to come back.