The first step in making a job attractive is to create a job that's an opportunity for someone, not just a job (Adler). An opportunity allows people to grow in some dimension, not just do the same-old, same-old. That means you need to develop a hiring strategy, and do a job analysis so you can see what problems you need solved and the kind of person who can help solve them.

Let me make that a bit more concrete. Say you're hiring a Tier 3 support person. A Tier 3 support person is a developer who likes developing small things with close-to-immediate gratification. The great Tier 3 people don't think that they do maintenance; they think they do small development.

If you call a Tier 3 support job "support" or "maintenance" you are offering a job. If you call it something like "small, short development projects to existing products" you are offering an opportunity--especially if you structure the job so this person works with the other developers, not just with support.

I'm assuming you're not just writing a job description like this, but that you will structure the job like this. (Never lie in a job description.) When you structure the role so that the person bridges the gap between hardcore development and hardcore support, you have a great opportunity that will attract exactly the people you want.

Labels: attractive job

posted by Johanna Rothman at at 12:46 PM | link |