Many Bad Hiring Practices and Alternatives

Posted on March 21, 2012 by johanna

When I teach interviewing, I teach these approaches to interviewing:

  1. Let the behavior-description questions sell the candidate on the company. Don’t try to “sell” the candidate on the company or the people. It sounds like a used car salesperson or a bad blind date. It leaves a bad taste in the candidate’s mouth. (Yes, those are two different links.)
  2. Organize the interviews with a matrix, so that everyone knows who is asking which questions.
  3. Ask questions that relate to the job. Forget the riddles and puzzles that have nothing to do with the job.
  4. Do add auditions to the question mix, so you can see a candidate at work. I like 10-15 minute auditions as a first step.

A friend sent me this hysterical article yesterday, A Most Wonderful Opportunity, Multiple Frustrations, and More. I did not roll on the floor, but I did laugh out loud. I loved the Mt Fuji answer. If I could have answered that question with a straight face, that’s how I would have loved to answer it. Of course, I would have just rolled my eyes so much, I don’t think I could have.

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How to Show Agile Behaviors on a Resume, Starting with Collaboration

Posted on February 28, 2012 by johanna

Back at OOP 2012, I gave a talk called “Six Behaviors to Consider When Hiring for an Agile Team.” These are all team-based, interpersonal skills that any team needs, but are critical on an agile team: collaboration; how to stop when something is good enough–especially when the customer says so; how to ask for help, those kinds of behaviors. My good friend and colleague, Udo Pracht, asked the million dollar question, “How do we show these behaviors on a resume?”

Good question, Udo. And, too often, these behaviors can appear weak to people who don’t understand about agile teams. “Collaborated on a team” does not appear like a strength on a resume, does it? It flunks Rich’s Resume and Interview Preparation Tips.

If you transform it so it shows value to the team and the organization, now maybe you can use it. Let’s start with collaboration. Did you help the team increase it’s throughput? Can you say this? Only if you measured before and after.

Led our team to 20% increase in throughput through use of swarming around features and other high-collaboration approaches in our agile approaches.

Ok, so maybe you didn’t lead the team. I hate the word “enable” on a resume, but that’s me. Maybe you can think of a better word.

Enabled our team to increase its throughput by 20% through use of swarming around features and other high-collaboration approaches, such as pairing in our agile approaches to our projects.

This is a sentence that should leap out at anyone who reads the resume. 20% is a huge, gigantic number. You’d better be ready to defend that number. Even if it was 10%, that’s a big number.

If you have worked on an agile team, you have burnup charts or cumulative flow diagrams, or cycle time numbers, so you have the data. No problem. (See, this is why I don’t use burndown charts; burndown doesn’t provide you this kind of data.) If you kept the data on paper, you might have to go digging for it. That’s ok. If you kept the data electronically, it should be easy to find. (Those famous last words, should be.) If you have not kept the data up until now, start keeping the data. It will be interesting to see if your collaboration is working.

And, if the collaboration is not working, you can address that in a retrospective, so you can attempt to improve this job while you look for another one, right? In either case, you win.

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Can Anyone That Old Know Anything?

Posted on February 2, 2012 by johanna

I was talking with a client recently, who was professing his desire for younger candidates.

“Can anyone older than 35 or 40 really know anything?” was his concern.

I sat there, a little nonplussed. “How old do you think I am?” I paused. “No, don’t answer that. Just remember that age is not the issue. You want people who know how to learn and work well with you. You want people who don’t have the same year of experience year after year after year.”

Those of you who have read Age and Agile are Orthogonal know what I think about age and agile. It’s not how old you are. It’s about how well you think. It’s about what you have learned and applied during your career.

In my recent post about Why an Agile Project Manager is Not a Scrum Master, I talked about the ongoing learning I expect a project manager to have. Of course, not all project managers have that. But the project managers who don’t continue to learn have the same year of experiences every year, year after year, do. (The goal of the PMI certification PDUs is that the PMP continue to learn, year after year.)

So, remember, it’s not about how old a candidate is. It’s about how well they they think, and how they have applied what they have learned.

And, you young turk hiring managers: yes, people that old might just know something. And, they might have more maturity than you give them credit for. And, they might not want your job. You can’t tell what a candidate’s value is until you read the resume. So, stop playing age discrimination before the older candidate even gets in the damn door and give them a shot.

Sheesh. Repeat after me. It’s not about how old the candidate is. It’s the value the candidate brings, regardless of the candidate’s age. Young people might not be able to learn anything, either. Sheesh.

Posted in hiring strategy | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

How to Use a Recruiter in Your Job Search

Posted on January 18, 2012 by johanna

If you’re looking for a job, and you have more than two years of experience, you can consider using a recruiter. Some recruiters have entry-level jobs, but that’s rare in this economy.

The more experience you have, the more senior you are, and the more specialized your experience is, the more you need a recruiter. You are more likely to be looking for a position that is unique and less likely to be advertised.

So how do you find and use a recruiter?

Use Someone Who Helped You Find a Position Before

Did you find your current or most recent position through a recruiter? Was it a good experience? Call that person again. If it was not good, don’t call that person.

Ask your friends for their references. Ask your LinkedIn colleagues for their references. Ask people who have found positions through recruiters who they like. Word-of-mouth referrals for recruiters is the best kind of referral.

You can even ask the hiring managers in your organization which recruiters they use, although that starts to put the recruiter in a sticky situation if you are still employed.

Use Someone Sourcing for Your Open Positions Now

If you’ve been a hiring manager, you can use a recruiter you’ve trusted to find you people before. And, you must be careful if you in the middle of hiring others for your department and looking for a new job yourself. You don’t want to put the recruiter in a no-win position. Discuss this with the recruiter.

Ask the recruiter if he or she has jobs at the level you want. Not all recruiters have jobs at all levels. Maybe you are not qualified for the level you want. You need to work with someone who will provide you honest feedback. You may need someone in the same organization as your current recruiter, but not someone who is sourcing for your open positions.

What About a Recruiter Who Cold-Calls You?

Some of my best ongoing relationships through the years have been from recruiters who cold-called me. They had heard of me, as a senior engineer, or as a manager who had open reqs, so they called. I listened to some of them. When I was a hiring manager, I let them prove themselves to me. I now have a short list of six trusted Boston-area recruiters, whom I refer and recommend.

Good Recruiters are Not Like Bad Car Salespeople

Yes, recruiters are salespeople. Yes, they serve the hiring organization. And, that doesn’t mean that you can’t both win from a long and lasting relationship. Bad salespeople exist in all industries. And, the great recruiters are not like the bad car salespeople, or like ambulance-chasing lawyers. You can trust great recruiters.

I cultivate my recruiting colleague relationships. I refer people to them. In exchange, I hear about new positions early, increasing my value to my network. I can’t always make a connection, and when I do, it’s great.

If you are senior enough, consider a recruiter. Choose one recruiter, maybe two. Do not use more than two recruiters at a time–they will be showing you the same jobs, especially in a down economy. Decide how long you want to give the recruiting relationship. If at the end of that time you’re not happy, end the recruiting relationship and move to another recruiter. And, consider the feedback the recruiter has provided. Are you taking advice on your dress, your resume, your interview style? Because, your inability to land a job could be about you, not the recruiter.

Recruiters can help you iterate on everything in your search, if you let them. They can hold up a mirror, if you let them. The question is this: Will you?

 

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Network by Joining LinkedIn Groups

Posted on January 9, 2012 by johanna

I’ve met a few people recently who wanted positions as agile project managers or Scrum Masters. I asked them if they belonged to any Agile LinkedIn groups. No, they didn’t know those groups existed.

It’s easy to not know. And, if you’re looking for a job, it has to be your business to know. Part of the problem is that the groups I know of today may not be the groups you need to know about tomorrow, so I’m not going to provide you a list of groups. Instead, I’ll suggest a way you can find the groups you need to discover.

  1. What do you want to do? Is it project management? Testing? Development? Start looking around for a LinkedIn group that seems like it has the right words in the title. For example, if you’re a Ruby on Rails developer in St. Louis, and you find a Ruby on Rails group in St. Louis, that seems like a group you might want to join.
  2. Now, read the discussions. Are there past discussions? Do people use the group? Or, is the group partly moribund? Is the group new and the group needs someone to help move it forward? Maybe that’s you. Maybe not. Your choice.
  3. Look at the past jobs. Have the posted jobs been at your level? Higher? Lower?
  4. Look at the group statistics. Are people joining? Leaving?
  5. Do you know the people in the group? Will you be able to add to your first level connections by joining this group?

Remember, you want looser connections rather than tighter connections so you can network more effectively. Maybe you don’t want Ruby on Rails in St. Louis. Maybe you want Ruby on Rails. Maybe you want Ruby on Rails in Missouri, or Midwest, or Central. Or, if you are from Canada or  Europe, maybe you want Ruby on Rails in Canada or Europe and the heck with the crazy USA folks. The reason I’m focusing on geography is that I’m assuming you have a preference for or against relocation. If you find a group with with a geographical location, you can be more assured that the posted jobs are relatively close to that location.

If you are looking for a job, look for active LinkedIn groups. If you are a hiring manager, look for those same LinkedIn groups. Some groups are really active, some not so much. And, the groups on LinkedIn are a treasure trove of networking. You have to use them to your advantage.

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Answering the Money Question

Posted on January 4, 2012 by johanna

Imagine this scenario per a comment: you’ve been contracting or consulting while you’ve been looking for a job. A potential hiring manager asks you, “What was your gross income?” as part of the interview. What do you say?

“Oy vey” is not a good answer. Although it might be precisely what you are feeling.

This is the start of the salary negotiation. Are you ready for the start of the salary negotiation? Have you built rapport with the hiring manager? You can always say, “I’m open to negotiation. What level is the job, and what is the midpoint of the level?” See What Salary Do You Expect is Another Bad Question.

Now, how do you wiggle out of the question?  You might say something like, “I’m not comfortable telling you that right now. Gross income as a consultant or contractor is nothing like an employee’s yearly wage. When we get to the salary discussion, I’d like to know what the position is worth to you, and what you think I am worth to you. I haven’t been working full time; I’ve been working enough to pay some bills. I’ve been looking for a job close to full time. I’d hate for you to think you could base an offer on my part-time contracting or consulting income.” I would say this with a smile on my face, if at all possible.

If a younger HR person or hiring manager asks this, I would chalk it up to naivete. If an older HR person or hiring manager asks, I would chalk it up to stupidity. If a senior manager of either stripe asks, I would wonder about working there. If you were successful as a contractor/consultant, why would you be looking for a full-time job?

No matter what, remember this is the start of the salary negotiation. You get to decide when to answer the question. You don’t have to answer at the beginning of the interview process. It’s sort of like being asked when you meet a blind date, “Will we sleep together tonight?” Ooh ick. Sometimes I’m very glad I’m married and self-employed.

Posted in Agile Job Search | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

How Not to Link with People on LinkedIn

Posted on December 21, 2011 by johanna

I’ve been writing the networking part of the Agile Job Search book, and realized you could use some of the advice before the book is ready.

I receive lots of requests to link with people on LinkedIn. Some people I’ve met at conferences or workshops. Some people I know. Some people I share common groups with. Some people I’ve met only by email. Most people I’ve never met in person at all.

I often accept the offer to link. However, I’ve stopped accepting the offer to link with people who have zero connections and no picture and who use the generic LinkedIn “since you are a person I can trust” text. Why? Because I can’t tell if these people are real. I can’t tell if I can trust you. Why would they want to connect with me of all people, especially if they are not in my industry?

If you want to connect with me, give me a reason to do so. Tell me how you know me. Show me your picture. Yes, I’m harping on the darn picture. If you are looking for a job or looking to hire someone or to expand your network, you have no excuse for not having a picture on your LinkedIn profile. Any reasonable picture will do. Any unreasonable picture, as long as it’s not of your private parts, will do. But don’t hide behind anonymity.

Just this morning, the husband of a close friend sent me an invitation to link. He said in his invitation, “I’m so-and-so’s husband.” Well, that cemented it. I would add anyone from her family, and certainly her husband. I trust her, and by extension her family. Remember back in Networking for a New Job or New Candidates, that Pfeffer said you build loose ties in many places? My friend’s husband is a loose tie to me. We trust each other through my friend. And, he’s not anonymous to me. Yes, he has a picture.

LinkedIn is not built on anonymity. It’s built on your experience, on your network, on your ability to use your network and your ability to help other people. If you’re not going to contribute, then don’t bother. And, don’t bother me.

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Asking About Lean Experience on Teams

Posted on December 1, 2011 by johanna

When Matthias Bohlen interviewed me for the OOP conference (see my post about the podcast for the OOP conference), he asked how to interview about lean experience. How do you ask potential team members about knowing their WIP limits or knowing how to help the team see its system?

Well, I’ve had a chance to think about this for a while and I have some ideas. Here are some behavior-description questions you might want to ask to determine if someone has had lean experience, or experience limiting work in progress:

  • “Tell me about a time you realized you were working on too many things at one time. How did you realize it?” (Pause and wait for the answer.) “Was there a board or some other visualization mechanism?” (Pause.) “Was it a solo effort or part of a team?” … “What did you do?”
  • “Have you worked on a team using kanban?” (Use a closed question to establish the experience.) “Tell me about a time you realized your team was having trouble staying inside your WIP (work in progress) limits.” Another question could be, “Looking back, did your WIP limits tell you anything about how the team worked?” (Pause.) “What was it? What did you/the team do about it?”
  • “Have you worked on a team using a story board for their iteration?” (Use a closed question. A story board is a mechanism to limit WIP, but teams don’t always use it that way.) “What happened when you used the board?” or “What did the board tell you about the way the team worked?”

Don’t use these questions as a script, but as a guide to a conversation.

If those questions are too high level, bring them down a notch or two by asking more specific questions such as, “How many stories were open at the same time and how many team members did you have?” If the candidate worked on a team of 5 and they had 5 stories open (or more!) chances are good they were not respecting WIP limits. But you don’t have to take my word for it, you can ask. That’s the value of behavior-description questions in an interview.

Matthias, thanks for making me think about lean teams, specifically!

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How to Describe Your Experience

Posted on November 16, 2011 by johanna

Take a look at Rich’s Resume and Interview Preparation Tips. Look especially at the Value, Action, Method for resume bullets. That’s a great way to describe your experience.

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What Have You Done Since Your Last Job?

Posted on October 19, 2011 by johanna

You’ve been unemployed for a over a year. You’re looking for a job. You have not been sitting home, eating bon-bons. You’ve been contributing to open-source projects, or studying for a certification, and networking like there’s no tomorrow. You have not found another job yet.

So, what do you say when hiring managers, HR people, or recruiters ask, “What have you done since your last job?”

You say, “Updating my skills.” Or, “Contributing to open source projects so I can practice such-and-so.”

Now, don’t say this if you have not been updating your skills. But if you have taken time while you’re looking for a job to upgrade your skills, say so. Explain what you have been doing. Take pride in your accomplishments. You have not been sitting at home, eating bon-bons.

Hiring managers, when you ask this question, use the answer as a jumping off point, for your behavior-description questions. “What have you learned about working in distributed teams as you worked on open-source projects?” is a great question. Don’t be afraid to ask it.

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