I had an interesting conversation with a recruiter yesterday who was looking for a VP of Engineering for a startup gaming company.  He started off by saying he was looking for someone with strong Flash programming skills.  Part of our conversation revolved around whether it really matters whether a VPE needs skills in a specific programming language.  (By the way, “Flash” programming is actually FLEX and ActionScript programming.)  I contend that the programming language doesn’t really matter.  It takes the same management skills for C++ programmers as it does for Flash programmers.  What’s really important are architecture and design skills.  A VPE needs to be able to intelligently review and question a software design to make sure that it meets the requirements and isn’t going to box everyone in a corner due to some flaw.  If there are bugs or issues specific to the programming language, the VPE’s job should be to know who on the team has the right expertise to address them, not to fix them himself.

I myself have been in this position more than once.  For example, one project used Java as the programming language.  Although I am no expert on Java, I was able to successfully manage the project because I did understand the architecture and design, and I had folks on my team that I could rely on to handle the nitty-gritty Java issues that did arise.

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