I don’t normally think much about how teams recruit pro athletes. But this quote from John Powers’ article “Mistake-Free Football” from the Boston Globe 1/27/04 says volumes: If the Patriots have relatively few disciplinary cases, it may be that they’re screened out before draft day. […]”Three things we look for in the people we hire […]
I’m developing a syllabus at the graduate level to teach high tech (if that matters) project management to people without a lot of PM experience. I’m supposed to teach MS Project as the tool project managers schedule the work. I’ve been rejecting the idea that a scheduling tool can teach a new PM how
Laurent’s post, The team building lunch prompted a bunch of (hopefully now organized) thoughts about the role of food in high tech projects. One of the things I notice when I perform assessments is whether there is some sort of cafeteria or other food-eating place. Projects that have a physical place large enough for
Candidates: before you send another resume or cover letter, read Joel Spolsky’s Getting Your Resume Read. Hiring managers, note that Joel uses the same three-pile sorting that I suggest in Tips for Reviewing Resumes. I like the pair review that Joel performs with another manager — if both reviewers add the resume to the “yes”
At last week’s Boston SPIN meeting (the hiring roundtable), a candidate said that he had trouble remembering which resume he’d sent to which company. The good news is that he’s customizing his cover letters and resumes. The bad news is he sounds disorganized when a hiring manager or (internal) recruiter calls for a phone screen.I
Meet Wendy, a new CTO. She was hired to make the company’s flagship product, BigProduct, releaseable more frequently. In fact, her predecessor was fired due to his “inability to release product quickly enough.” Wendy’s been able to deliver products in adverse circumstances, so she feels she’s ready for the challenge. Wendy meets with her senior
John Kador, who’s written a number of books about interviewing and a new one coming out, has an article about brainteaser and riddle interviews on Darwin. Kador gives pointers on how to answer the questions, and if you’re a candidate, you should read his suggestions. They will help you in the interview. I have a
Rick commented on my last post that some engineers think that status checking slows them down. Mark said that engineers push back on demos and pointless measurements and then said in another comment, “progress metrics can always be free.” Here’s how and what I look for, to determine status. If I’m managing a traditionally-planned
I was a reference for a senior manager yesterday. At first, the reference started to ask me, “What do you think are so-and-so’s weaknesses?” I hate that question, because it all depends on the context. And I’m smart enough to turn that question around so a weakness doesn’t sound like a weakness. Grr. But then,
At Boston SPIN last night, Tim Lister of “Waltzing with Bears” fame gave a talk about recognizing and managing risk. It was great. If you ever have a chance to see Tim speak in person, do so (Yes, Tom DeMarco is also an excellent speaker, but he wasn’t there last night :-). When I