In one of my presentations this week at the Software Development conference, someone asked, “How do I attract suitable candidates? I can attract lots of candidates, but how do I get the most appropriate people to respond to my open req?”In this economy, that’s hard. Even so, you have some options:
Use your personal network (see Hiring Tip #4).
Use your employees’ personal network. If you have great people working for you, chances are good they know other great people. Ask your employees help you.
Write the ad in a way that people who actually read the ad will screen themselves in or out. There’s still no guarantee that people will read the ad, but if you write it and say which functional skills, which qualities, preferences, and non-technical skills, and the kinds of domain expertise you need, you have a better chance at attracting the most suitable candidates.
If you have the money, don’t post the ad publicly; use a contract recruiter. (Recruiters screen candidates for you.)
Candidates will still respond the way they want to, but the more effort you put into creating an ad that works for you, the more likely you’ll deal with more suitable candidates.
It doesn’t matter what kind of paper your resume is printed on. It does matter how your resume looks to potential employers. Here’s a little checklist to make sure you’re presenting yourself in the best light:
Is your experience in reverse chronological order? It’s too hard to quickly read a resume in any other way.
If your resume is electronic, is it in PDF format? Don’t use a word processing document for your resume. Too many companies don’t let in attachments of a certain size. And, if you’re not a pro at the word processing software, you may not be presenting yourself in the best light.
Leave white space on the resume. Your resume does not have to use all the space on the page. Leave room for the hiring manager to take notes.
Include a customized cover letter. Research the company and explain why you would be a good choice for the position. Discuss something you saw in the ad in your cover letter and show the hiring manager which parts of your experience directly address their needs.
If you have pointers that have worked for you, email me, and I’ll post them in another post.
You’re hiring someone. You don’t want to waste your time in the interview. So, if you want to ask good interview questions, ask people about how they’ve worked in the past. People repeat perceived successful behaviors (whether those behaviors were successful or not).Behavior-description questions elicit the candidate’s story of how they worked in the past. When people tell you a story about their work, they’re likely to tell you how they worked, with whom, under which conditions, and so on. Ask questions like, “Tell me about that last project… Tell me about your position on the project…” If the person was a project manager, ask, “What techniques did you use to manage the project?” or “What was challenging about managing that project?” If the candidate is a technical person, ask “How did you make technical decisions on the project?” or “Was there a particularly challenging part of the design?” or “Tell me about a challenging problem you had to solve. What was the problem and how did you solve it?”Behavior-description questions are open-ended, requiring more than a one-syllable answer. And, they help the candidate explain how they work. (Candidates may not know about these questions, and may need time to think of the answer, so don’t forget to let the candidate think.)Candidates, when you interview hiring managers and teams, you can ask, “Tell me about the last release. Did you go crazy during the release? When?” If they say they went crazy at the beginning of the project, then it’s good bet this company that uses death march projects to succeed. If the hiring manager says, “At the end” and the technical staff say, “At the beginning”, there’s a huge disconnect between the people who know what’s happening on the project and the management team. Use these answers to guide your choice between jobs.
Once you’ve worked for 10 years or more, it’s worthwhile creating a one-paragraph summary of your experience. It’s not easy to create that paragraph, and it’s necessary, so that you can grab and retain the hiring manager’s attention. So what’s a one-paragraph summary? Here are some:
A proven track record of improving business processes through the identification and application of appropriate leading edge information technology.
A seasoned executive with proven ability to bring quality products to market. Significant experience in people, project, program management; process analysis and improvement.
Progressively responsible experience in SQA involving test plan design and automation, and testing in client server and web-based eCommerce environments. Previous experience in the analysis, design, coding, testing and implementation of large scale commercial applications including DBMS.
Created and implemented security and quality programs at multiple site organizations. Mentored direct reports and senior management to leverage IT for competitive advantage. Created and delivered security and quality training programs. Created Corporate Policy & Procedures. Led platform, network, and application security teams.
Each of these has common elements:
They’re short. No more than 4 sentences. If you have to write more than 4 sentences, edit, delete, remove, whatever you have to do to keep the paragraph at 4 short sentences. 2 or 3 sentences is even better.
The lead sentence says the most important thing about the candidate.
The lead sentence is designed to “grab” the reader (not all of these do, but they are supposed to).
So, how do you create this overview paragraph?
Write down: what you like to do, where you think you strengths are, what you’ve had the most experience in. You may not have the most experience in what you like to do, which is why I suggested you write down what you like to do first.
Make that sentence action-oriented. The sentence doesn’t have to start with a verb; it has to say what you’ve done in a powerful manner.
Follow up with 1-3 other sentences that explain what you do (if necessary).
Those other sentences are just as hard to write as the first one, so here are two of my techniques for writing short:
When I work on small writings where each word is important, I break apart the paragraphs into sentences. (Make each sentence its own paragraph.) Then I work each sentence by itself. Then I figure out how the paragraph goes back together.
Another technique is to write it out longhand on a separate piece of paper. Then, tear that paper up into small itsy bitsy pieces. Throw the paper away. Now write the paragraph again.
Use a thesaurus to look at alternative meanings for *each* word. Make sure you have the most appropriate meaning for each word.
Have someone else review the paragraph, and ask you questions such as, “Do you mean executive or senior manager? Do you mean develop or deliver?”
These techniques will help you create a grabber of an overview paragraph — which will help the hiring manager keep reading the resume.
“Just go network. You’ll find the people (or the job) you’re looking for.” Yeah. Right. Wouldn’t it be nice if it were that easy? If you’re like most technical managers (or technical people looking for a job), networking is not one of your innate skills. Here are some suggestions to help you network:
Attend local professional society meetings. Bring your business cards, try to talk to a few people. Once you’ve attended a couple of meetings, make it a point to meet two new people at each meeting. If you have an open position, bring job ads. If you’re looking for a job, make sure you talk to new people at each meeting.
List all the ways you know people: alumni networks (schools and companies), religious organizations, friends, relatives. Then systematically contact people in those networks who may be able to help you.
Are there conferences in your field? Consider contacting the speakers to see if they know of anyone who might be appropriate. If there’s a vendor show, attend that so you can network with the vendors and maybe meet some people.
You don’t have to like networking; you just have to do it. The more effective you are at networking, the faster you’ll find the people (or the job) you’re looking for.
You know you’re supposed to keep your resume to two pages. But you’ve been working for 20+ years, and you have lots of great experience. Instead of pages and pages of the chronological resume, think about the kinds of things you’ve done in your work. Have you rescued projects? Have you facilitated strategic planning? Have you been a certain kind of functional manager several times? Group that kind of functional experience on a resume cover page, without specifics. Here’s how I do it for my resume:Project Rescue for Floundering Projects
- Analysis, prioritization, and initial definition of project management for floundering projects. Defined and implemented lightweight processes for project success.
- Analysis, definition, and implementation of program management, project management, and SQA management to bring out-of-control projects to beta and release, and the organizations into some semblance of order.
- Extensive experience in project and program management
If you want to see more examples, my online “brief resume” is this cover page.Then in the body of my resume, I show the reverse chronological experience. I only go back about 12 years, the rest of the experience is summarized.An experience-grouping cover sheet helps hiring managers see if your experience correlates with their needs without making them read a 14-page resume.
If you’re a hiring manager, you’re probably faced with a gazillion resumes. You’ve taken the first step and screened the resumes (more on that in a future tip). Now you’re thinking about bringing candidates in for an interview.Stop. Don’t just bring people in for an interview. Phone screen candidates first. Ask questions to verify the candidate is appropriate for you:
Check on elimination factors: Does the candidate have the minimum technical skills, and ability to perform the job?
Check on relevant experience: Does the candidate have experience that means something to you in this job now? Or, can the candidate adapt their experience to your job?
Check on salary and ability to start: Is the candidate appropriate for your salary and available to start?
Don’t let your HR staff phone-screen for you. Unless they understand the technical issues of your job, they can’t ask the most appropriate questions.When I phone screen, I make 3 piles: Yes, No, Maybe. I invite the Yes people in for an interview. I reject the No people (nicely, of course). I tell the Maybe people I’m phone screening other people, and I may invite them in for an interview.Phone screening takes some of your time, but frees up your technical staff to continue their work. Use phone screens to protect your staff’s work time and to verify the candidate is appropriate.
The good news is the economy’s coming back slowly. The bad news is that it is *slow*.In a slow economy, companies fund line positions - positions that directly affect how well the company can complete its projects. The company may need staff positions, such as process improvement or administrators, but they won’t fund those positions. So, don’t look for a staff position.If you have an objective, make sure you mention a line position, if you mention a position at all. If you mention a staff position, “Technical lead in process improvement,” the hiring manager is likely to throw out your resume without looking past the objective. Hiring managers have huge numbers of resumes to read. If the hiring manager sees a staff position request, they’ll throw out your resume. It doesn’t matter if you can help them complete the project faster. They don’t know that, and their prejudice is that you’ll slow the project down.So make sure your objective points to a line position. Show the value of your work to that line position. Then, go get ‘em tiger!