Thanks to George Dinwiddie, who pointed me to the hashtag #FiveWordTechHorrors. I have been enjoying that stream. I found “We Only Hire Rock Stars” at some point. I realized I had not written about a common hiring trap in a very long time. Yes, you should hire “stars.” They have to be stars who fit
Johanna’s 2013 New Year’s Tips Every year, I provide you three New Year’s tips, to start your year off right. Here are my three tips for 2013: Tip #1: Experiment. I’ve noticed that many of my clients and colleagues are looking for “best practices.” Well, how about “pretty good” practices or “practices that might work
There’s a great post, Please: Stop “Hiring to Cultural Fit”. Laura Bergells explains the problems of what she sees when people supposedly hire for cultural fit: They consider for personality first They consider tech and business skills second If you read this blog on a regular basis, you are shaking your head in disbelief. That’s
I had a boss who was great at saying, “Terri did this. Jen did that. JR did this other thing.” We all knew who had learned about different areas of the system, who had succeeded at which parts of testing or development or project management. It was great. She didn’t just tell us. Nope, our
When I was a hiring manager, I almost never negotiated the offer I made to candidates. Why? I got to know people during the interviewing. I often asked in the phone screen when I knew I wanted to bring someone in, “The typical salary for this job is this range: x- y. Are we on
I have two very popular posts on this site: Interview Questions for Program Managers, and Interview Questions for Project Managers. Several of you have asked how to answer these questions. Here are the tips to answer these questions. Before the Interview: Before the interview, review your resume. You want to articulate the value of your
“Robert, do you have a minute?” Cheryl, the development manager, stood at her director’s door. “Sure, let me save this.” Robert stopped what he was doing. “You look worried. Come on over and let’s sit at the visitors table. This looks serious.” “Well, it is. I’m not sure how to say it, so I’ll just
I just finished the electronic version of Manage Your Job Search, integrating my comments from my beta reviewers. I’m getting the book ready for print and audio now. One of my realizations is that a job search is an emergent project. As much as you might want to, you cannot predict an end date. Other
I listen to the selfpublishing podcast. I either listen in the car or on the couch at night. Every so often, Mark wants to know, “Why are you laughing?” Because these guys are funny. Be warned: they swear, a lot. If that offends you, don’t listen. I’ve been listening to their advice about writing, marketing,
Take Advantage of Opportunities for Speed Coaching Do people ever come to you for advice? I bet they do. Are you ever puzzled about whether to answer them or coach them? Maybe you’re not sure how to coach them quickly. Sometimes you might think, “I can provide an answer faster than I can prompt an