How you introduce yourself in an interview matters. You can draw a candidate in, or make the candidate wish he or she was walking over hot coals barefoot.One hiring manager, Sam (not his real name) started his introduction this way: “Hi, I’m Sam, a founder of this company. I’m a Phd in Computer Science. I […]
My column on Stickyminds this week is Building Better Test Teams. (One of the people who commented realized he could use these questions to self-assess his work.) Feel free to comment on Stickyminds or here.
Kathy Melymuka wrote up a Q&A with me in Hiring Nerds: Author lays out practical strategies for staffing up IT. And Beth Nobscot has a comment in Tips for Hiring Nerds. Beth has a number of articles on her site. I particularly liked Hire Employees That Seek Opportunity Not Pay.
The third biggest hiring mistake I see is when hiring managers don’t consider cultural fit issues with candidates. I don’t mean small/large company, although that’s a common question hiring managers ask. Here are more cultural fit issues: The personality diversity of the team. If you have a team of introverts (not uncommon), think about that
The second biggest hiring mistake I see is to hire for the eventual future — but not to create the future from the current reality. I see this mostly when hiring managers and senior staff. Here are some examples: A CTO knows he needs a program manager to manage multiple releases and release operations, so
Many companies think an employee referral program is a form of viral marketing. Most of the time, they’re not. Take a look at If your referral programs don’t spread from person to person, it isn’t viral for some great ideas to how to make an employee referral program work.I particularly liked the idea to RSSify
As part of an interview, a reporter asked me what the single biggest mistake managers make when hiring. Unfortunately, I see three common mistakes: Hiring based on a tools checklist (some number of years of Java or WinRunner or some other tool) as opposed to hiring someone who can adapt his/her knowledge to the products