Tag Archives: interpersonal skills

We Have Created Our Own Shortage Of People

Posted on December 7, 2012 by johanna

John Sumser is writing a series of articles about the hiring paradox on HR Examiner. Read the first one, The Hiring Paradox (Skills Gap 1). The gist is this: It takes more time to hire when you have more alternatives. … Continue reading →

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Building Rapport with Personal Conversation

Posted on November 17, 2009 by johanna

One of the most important things to do in an interview is to build rapport. I led a session last week at AYE, focused on conversations (not specifically interviews). One of the more memorable things I said is that you … Continue reading →

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Technical Ability is No Guarantee of Success

Posted on June 25, 2009 by johanna

I just read Most Likely to Succeed: How do we hire when we can’t tell who’s right for the job? by Malcolm Gladwell. He talks about how a football recruiter agonized over his decisions: …“This guy threw lasers, he could … Continue reading →

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What Makes a Great Technical Manager

Posted on May 27, 2008 by johanna

Jurgen’s post, How to Select a Fine Technical Manager, along with the posts he responded to prompted this one. I’m not agreeing much with Jurgen today. I suspect it’s because we have very different experience. In my experience, only technical … Continue reading →

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Hiring Great People: Focus on Non-Technical Skills

Posted on February 23, 2008 by johanna

SlackerManager agrees with me in his How do you hire great people?. I said Hire for Intangibles; You Can Teach Technical Skills. It’s a person’s attitude, passion, and ability to work with other people that counts.

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Hire for Intangibles; You Can Teach Technical Skills

Posted on October 19, 2007 by johanna

A bunch of my clients are having trouble filling their positions. They can’t find a bazillion years of Java or .Net or something else. There is a relative candidate shortage, compared to the candidate glut of a few years ago. … Continue reading →

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Audition Type #3: Behavioral Auditions

Posted on July 30, 2007 by johanna

A behavioral audition is one where you want to see some specific candidate behaviors. Management auditions typically fall into this category. But especially if you’re hiring for an agile team, you might want to see how a candidate exhibits behaviors, … Continue reading →

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Hiring Strategy #4: When Cutting Edge is Your Bleedng Edge

Posted on June 6, 2006 by johanna

If you’ve ever been involved in a startup before the startup had competitors or were part of a disruptive change in technology, you’ve needed this hiring strategy. In this case, technical skills are close to irrelevant. What’s really important when … Continue reading →

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Evaluating Candidates’ Interpersonal Skills

Posted on April 25, 2004 by johanna

Sorin asks another great question: “So please enlighten me : how do you decide, with only interviews/auditions, whether a candidate will be a good addition to a team or a disruptive element“ I’m assuming you’ve already asked questions such as, … Continue reading →

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When to Drop Candidates Based on Qualities, Preferences, Skills

Posted on April 13, 2004 by johanna

  Sorin’s comment got me thinking. How do you make the decision that a candidate’s technical skills aren’t worth the candidate’s lack of relationship, communication, listening, or some other soft skill? Esther was talking about collaborative teams, so someone who … Continue reading →

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