Have you read The next thing Silicon Valley needs to disrupt big time: its own culture? If not, it talks about hiring processes where companies Hire people “just like us” Where candidates can’t tell they are on interviews Where, if you wear a suit, you might be disqualified, because, hey, we don’t wear suits here. […]
When I was a young developer, my employers were hungry for talent. They hired women, as well as men. Of course, my first employer wanted to know what birth control I used, which was an illegal question at the time. I told them so. Fast forward to the 80’s, when I became a hiring manager.
There are many hiring traps and shortcuts, especially for technical people. Partially that’s because too few HR people know about technical people. But, partially that’s because too many technical people think, “I have a job, I must know what it takes to hire well.” In my most recent management myth, Management Myth 27: We Can
Back in More Interview Questions Not to Ask, Part 1, I said that hiring managers and teams should not ask irrelevant questions. Some of you here, and on LinkedIn and Facebook asked, “How do we answer these questions?” Here’s how you do it. If someone asks you “Who do you most admire and why?” use
I’ve met many managers who were in the wrong position. Sometimes, it was the Peter Principle. Sometimes, it’s managers who have been founders or who have been technically great and got promoted into management positions. Because they are so intelligent, and because they do not read about management, they don’t know or don’t care about
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
On Managing Product Development, I say that feature teams all over the world are fine. But, how do you hire these teams ? One way is to go to that country, hire the first person yourself, and have that person hire the rest. Another way is to hire someone here, wherever here is, and have
When I talk about interviewing an agile team, many people think, “Oh, we should pair!” and that’s it. But, many teams don’t pair regularly. If you pair in the interview and you don’t pair at work, you have an incongruent interview. That’s not helpful to you or your candidate. Instead, you want to create an
I saw a post on a google+ circle that I can’t post to, because I’m not part of the circle. The author has a pretty good hiring process. But, it doesn’t quite help the author learn enough about the candidate fast. The interviewing meanders. Here’s my process from Hiring Geeks That Fit, after you’ve done
I said in Hiring for an Agile Team: Making Tradeoffs, that we have a shortage of qualified people for the open agile positions. That’s based on anecdotal evidence, i.e. every hiring manager I talk to who says, “Johanna, I can’t find any agile people.” Most of the time, their ads are broken. But, once we