I recently spoke with a hiring manager who was unhappy about a candidate’s references, “All the references are for jobs 10 years ago. And he’s had 4 jobs in the last 5 years. Why aren’t there references from those jobs?” If you’re a hiring manager, you’ll notice many candidates were either unemployed or had multiple […]
A reader asked about interviewing interviewers: “it might be interesting if the person being interviewed were allowed to ask some technical questions of the interviewer.” Yes, you can absolutely ask question of your interviewers. And the best question might not be the stump-the-interviewer questions (in the same way that the stump-the-candidate questions aren’t the best
I exchanged email with a graduate student recently, who’s just starting to think about what she wants to do when she graduates. Since she’s about a year away from graduation, this is a great time to start thinking. She originally thought she might want to work with teams who maintain software systems. I commented that
In Rethinking a Management Decision, Kevin Salwen reflects on when it’s appropriate to hire someone with a cut in pay. As I’ve moved further along in my career, I realize that there are a whole host of jobs that are just plain better than what people have now….Now, I’m wondering how much I would allow
Thanks to Brian, I discovered this gem on resumes and first impressions. I especially like the first point: “Concise – keep it short and to the point. Tell us about your accomplishments as well as your responsibilities. Don’t spend a lot of time talking about strategy, the product, or the company.” Someone with four years
If you are (or work for) a fabulous manager, you have weekly one-on-ones with your staff and discuss their accomplishments, and file those accomplishments in a folder. At the end of a year, you know what people have done, you’ve given them feedback on their work, and writing their review is a piece of cake.
You’re a candidate. You’re talking to a couple of technical interviewers. One of the interviewers asks you a question. You answer “black.” The interviewer says, “No, it’s white.” Wishing to avoid confrontation, you don’t push the answer. Geek that you are, you check the answer when you get home. Sure enough, it’s “black.”Well, you have
Smart hiring managers know to use a phone screen to screen in appropriate candidates and screen out unsuitable candidates. And they know that before you start the phone screen, you verify this is still a good time to call. But what if you call the candidate and he or she answers the phone? Can you
My teenage daughter is attempting to find a job this summer. She dutifully filled out an application for a camp counselor position at a not-so-close-to-our-house camp. The idea is that she and my nephew would both work at the camp, staying at my sister’s house. We discovered last week that the person reviewing the applications
I had an email conversation with Allen, a blog reader. One of the questions he asked is “What do you know about my company?” Allen used this question as a technique to determine how much initiative a candidate has and how much they want to learn about the company. Allen has a good question. And