It looks more like the hiring process for McDonalds...
You probably didn't mean it like that but "attitude, open-mindedness and general ability to endure pain" is the qualities that I would want a slave to have. There is no experience, inventiveness, leadership, autonomy, knowledge, logical thinking, initiative, problem solving, etc... here, even though there are qualities that matter to engineers. There are only qualities that matter when it comes to executing orders. I doesn't mean that they are undesirable, it is important to have people who stay enthusiastic even when they don't do as they please, but it is not all there is to a skilled job.
You want someone who learns by example, and from a blank slate. Yep, that's how you get a good burger flipper. But for a developer to quickly learn by example in all but the most simple projects, he needs a solid background. A programmer who knows 10 programming languages will pick up the 11th in no time at all, literally. One who knows zero will need more than a few weeks of looking at you to code competently.
You seem to be in a rare situation where you need a low-skilled developer. Most projects require either high skills or no one at all (automation).
Note that many people think they don't need skilled developers, until they realize the mess people have done. It is a common problem with off-shoring to countries with low labor cost, like India. People think they are going to save a lot of money until they realize that it is cheap for a reason. You can get quality work done in India if you pay the price, but too many people go there to not pay the price.
As for "web-scale zealots", you probably mean people who are on top of "mount stupid" in the Dunning-Kruger curve. Yep, they are the worst and you'd rather have a "blank slate". But if you think about it, since we all have that bias to some extent, the fresh people you have are walking towards mount stupid and will become worse, if you hire them when they are overconfident, they are passing it and becoming better.
You probably didn't mean it like that but "attitude, open-mindedness and general ability to endure pain" is the qualities that I would want a slave to have. There is no experience, inventiveness, leadership, autonomy, knowledge, logical thinking, initiative, problem solving, etc... here, even though there are qualities that matter to engineers. There are only qualities that matter when it comes to executing orders. I doesn't mean that they are undesirable, it is important to have people who stay enthusiastic even when they don't do as they please, but it is not all there is to a skilled job.
You want someone who learns by example, and from a blank slate. Yep, that's how you get a good burger flipper. But for a developer to quickly learn by example in all but the most simple projects, he needs a solid background. A programmer who knows 10 programming languages will pick up the 11th in no time at all, literally. One who knows zero will need more than a few weeks of looking at you to code competently.
You seem to be in a rare situation where you need a low-skilled developer. Most projects require either high skills or no one at all (automation).
Note that many people think they don't need skilled developers, until they realize the mess people have done. It is a common problem with off-shoring to countries with low labor cost, like India. People think they are going to save a lot of money until they realize that it is cheap for a reason. You can get quality work done in India if you pay the price, but too many people go there to not pay the price.
As for "web-scale zealots", you probably mean people who are on top of "mount stupid" in the Dunning-Kruger curve. Yep, they are the worst and you'd rather have a "blank slate". But if you think about it, since we all have that bias to some extent, the fresh people you have are walking towards mount stupid and will become worse, if you hire them when they are overconfident, they are passing it and becoming better.