According to my colleagues inside organizations, we are officially in a seller’s (candidate’s) market for technical jobs. Managers report it’s difficult to find people, and they want to know how to make the jobs attractive. I don’t claim to know a lot about sales (just enough to keep myself in business!). Here’s the one thing […]
Adam Goucher has a post about how he organizes interviews, So, you’ve got yourself an interview with me. I asked Adam why he spends so much time on Company/Position overview (15 minutes) and the candidate’s Elevator Pitch (5 minutes). He said (I’m paraphrasing) that he’s hit the war for talent, and feels that he needs
Ok, I admit it. I have this strange fascination with “The Apprentice.” This morning on the “Today” show, Donald Trump and Matt Lauer “interviewed” 8 candidates to be on “The Apprentice” next season. (If you’re watching for interview tips, stop. Watch for the entertainment value 🙂 I heard one fabulous interview question: “Do you love
If you manage people, at some point, you’re going to deal with titles and job descriptions. Here are my perceptions about the constraints on titles: Make sure the titles for developers, testers, writers, anyone who performs project construction are parallel. That is, don’t have junior testers unless you also have junior developers. Make sure the
Recently, two colleagues got stuck in their negotiations over a job offer. The candidate thought he heard “How little will it take to make you happy?” The hiring manager thought he said, “What do you need?” Argh. Both of these are bad questions. When you’re asked how little you need, you feel as if you’re
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