Raven has a very funny take on what job descriptions really mean.

Labels: job description

posted by Johanna Rothman at at 9:01 AM | link |

Read Sidu's Avoiding hell at work by spotting Dilbertian job descriptions.

Sidu's on target. That's why I suggest you do a real job analysis, and write the ad and/or job description with other technical people. People who are not in the industry dumb down the descriptions and ads, and make them worthless for people to filter themselves in or out for your job.

Labels: job analysis, job description

posted by Johanna Rothman at at 7:22 AM | link |

If you haven't read Hiring the Best ..., you may not realize how often I say it's ok to iterate on job descriptions.

Job descriptions cannot be static. To all you HR folks, sorry, you have to work with the hiring manager to determine what's most important for the position you're filling now. This particular developer/tester/writer/project manager/whomever is not the same as the last person you hired. So you gotta change the job description.

Expect to iterate on the job description as you walk through the analysis, and possibly after your first few phone screens. Even after you bring a candidate in, expect that you'll know more about what you're looking for--and what you're not looking for.

Take advantage of that knowledge and iterate on your job description. It will save you time in the long run.

Labels: iteration, job description

posted by Johanna Rothman at at 2:53 PM | link |

I'm doing a webinar series for Kennedy, starting this Thursday. See Building Effective Hiring Strategies & Job Descriptions To Match!. You can sign up for either or both. I hope you decide to join me Jan 18 and 25, 2007. (I'll be doing another series in May about how to use different interviewing techniques and how to teach them--assuming this series goes well.)

Labels: hiring strategy, job description, webinar

posted by Johanna Rothman at at 7:51 AM | link |

In a previous post, Attracting Suitable Candidates, Laurent caught me being vague. In Screening Out, he points to a great skit, where the technical people are talking about people skills but the HR people are talking about tools and technology.

Too many recruiters just don't get it -- that software is much more people and perseverance than technology or tool skills. Unfortunately, not all hiring managers understand how to tell the recruiters what kind of a person they want.

If you're not sure how to ask for the kind of person you want, describe your environment:

• Do we have a collaborative environment?
• Do we have project teams?
• Do we have everyone focused on the same thing?

If you have a collaborative environment, you could write an ad like this:

"We have a collaborative development environment, where we work together. If you have the interest and problem solving skills to work with a group of stubborn persevering colleagues, we want to talk to you. Be ready to tell us about how you've solved problems with others."

This ad would not attract the kind of person who wants to sit in a cube and write code all day (and not test it).

If you have a focus-on-one-project group, you could write an ad like this:

"We work together on the next generate of [whatever-it-is]. We focus on one release at a time...."

If you have a many-projects-at-one-time group, you could write an ad like this:

"If you're worried about being bored, don't be. We have multiple projects and we need your help to make them succeed...."

These ads attract different kinds of people and help candidates screen themselves in and out, so you have fewer resumes to review. So first think about your environment. If you had to describe it in one or two sentences, how would you describe it?

I just read Describe Opportunities, Not Requirements and Lou Adler explains even better what I was trying to say. If you describe requirements, you create a list that too many people (but not enough of the right people) can measure themselves against. If you describe opportunities, the people who want to do what you have will answer the ad.

Describe opportunities in your ad, to attract more appropriate candidates and prevent the ones that don't fit your environment from applying.

Labels: job ad, job description

posted by Johanna Rothman at at 7:14 AM | link |