I was reading Must-Have Job Skills in 2013, and I was struck by the skills Mantell says job-seekers must have: Clear communications Personal branding Flexibility Productivity improvement Here’s what these mean for great geeks: Communications mean you have to be able to discuss what you mean with and without the correct jargon. With jargon, you […]
I realize that many successful technical people have degrees. But the former Yahoo CEO was canned for lying on his resume about a bachelor’s degree Computer Science. Now, let’s think about this for a minute. A senior manager with 20 years of experience who felt the need to lie about a bachelor’s degree? Why does
Long ago, when I was single, one of my managers refused to give me new development work because I was dating a guy who lived out of the state. “You’ll go marry him and then where will I be?” he asked. “I’ll be down a developer.” “If you don’t give me good work to do,
I was talking with a client recently, who was professing his desire for younger candidates. “Can anyone older than 35 or 40 really know anything?” was his concern. I sat there, a little nonplussed. “How old do you think I am?” I paused. “No, don’t answer that. Just remember that age is not the issue.
I gave a talk at the Philly Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise earlier this week about managing the project portfolio. I was talking about people who start thinking at the 50,000 foot level (like me) and people who start thinking at the blades of grass level. We both move up and down, it’s just where
Last weekend, at GLSEC, there was a panel. At the panel, some managers bemoaned the fact they couldn’t find qualified candidates around a specific technology. They happened to be talking about SharePoint this weekend. That was this weekend. Another year, another location, it would have been a different technology. The problem is if you can’t
I’ve had a heavy speaking calendar this month. I knew I’d be home, so I accepted a number of local and close domestic speaking engagements. I’ve been surprised by some fantastic stories of managers and employees. First, there’s the well-meaning manager who wants a current tester to be “motivated” to do manual testing. “How do
Recently, I spoke with a hiring manager. He wanted to make sure a person he thought was overqualified for a position stayed in the job for two years. (!!) He was asking candidates to commit to his job for two years in the interview process. If an organization can commit to a candidate for two
You may have noticed my most recent post was back in October (ouch). That’s because of the past 6 weeks, I’ve been out of town 5. With that much travel, something has to go, and some of my blogging is it. In any case, I hadn’t stopped thinking about hiring issues, I just momentarily stopped
Lately, I’ve been working with people who say they’ve looked for months to try to find just the right person. I believe them. When I ask where they spend their time, they inevitably say that they spend way too long interviewing people who aren’t quite right. And, it doesn’t have to be that way. Here’s