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Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds
Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People
Aug 23, 2005: The Japanese translation is available. I am sooo excited. 
The publisher is Shoeisha.
(2/2/05): Up for a Jolt award! 
Good technical people are the foundation on which successful high technology organizations are built. Establishing a good process for hiring such workers is essential. Unfortunately, the generic methods so often used for hiring skill-based staff, who can apply standardized methods to almost any situation, are of little use to those charged with the task of hiring technical people.
Unlike skill-based workers, technical people typically do not have access to cookie-cutter solutions to their problems. They need to adapt to any situation that arises, using their knowledge in new and creative ways to solve the problem at hand. As a result, one developer, tester, or technical manager is not interchangeable with another. This makes hiring technical people one of the most critical and difficult processes a technical manager can undertake.
Hiring The Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets & Science of Hiring Technical People takes the guesswork out of hiring and diminishes the risk of costly hiring mistakes. With the aid of step-by-step descriptions and detailed examples, you'll learn how to • write a concise, targeted job description • source candidates • develop ads for mixed media • review résumés quickly to determine Yes, No, Maybe candidates • develop intelligent, nondiscriminatory interview techniques • create fool-proof phone screens • check references with a view to reading between the lines • extend an offer that will attract a win-win acceptace or tender a gentle-but-decisive rejection • and more.
An effective hiring process is crucial to saving an organization the costs and consequences of a bad hiring decision. Not only is a bad hire costly in terms of recruiting expenses and the time spent hiring, it can also bog down or derail projects that may already be running late.
You, your team, and your organization will live with the long-term consequences of your hiring decision. Investing time in developing a hiring strategy will shorten your decision time and the ramp-up time needed for each new hire—reducing the impact of hiring on your project progress.
You can buy the book from the publisher, Dorset House. If you're in the Boston or Denver areas, stop by Softpro and see it. Take a look at their page. (Hint: Some independent bookstores such as Softpro can give you a better price than some large online bookstores.) You can also buy it from Amazon.