In Hiring for an Agile Team: Who Do You Need?, I asked you to consider the kinds of people you were looking for. Yes, you might need developers or testers or BAs or writers. And, I suggested you think about T-shaped people, those folks who could do whatever it takes to move a feature forward. […]
This is the start of a 5-part series: Hiring for an agile team. Let’s assume you are trying to hire for your agile team. Let’s assume you are in a location where you have candidates to recruit, that there are people looking for jobs in your area. I’ll cover how to hire feature teams elsewhere
Have you read The STEM Crisis Is a Myth? It’s a fascinating article. Bob actually has data, as opposed to my anecdotal evidence, now and dating back to my article from 2001, Crisis? What Crisis? A Contrarian Perspective. (For those of you who don’t know the four letter acronym, STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and
I just read Social Media is Paralyzing HR. (Hat tip to John Sumser, @JohnSumser who tweeted it.) I sympathize with Paul, who is sympathizing with HR. Let me tell you what I see in too many small to medium size companies: One lonely HR person who is trying to do: All the recruiting for all
I just completed writing a series on agile recruiting for Dice.com. Here are all the posts: What is Agile Anyway? How Tech Teams Manage Workload in Agile What the Heck is Kanban? Agile Culture and Recruiting–Hiring Geeks That Fit Five W’s of Agile Recruiting I hope you enjoy these posts. Tell all your recruiter friends!
Are too many job descriptions over-specifying what they need? I read these two posts: Shooting Ourselves in the Foot Isn’t an Effective Engagement Strategy and Top 3 Hiring Mistakes to Avoid. Both posts discuss poor job analysis. This is the issue of How Many Essential Skills Do You Require? Over-specifying a job is bad management and
I just read How to Listen. (Tip of the hat to Naomi Karten who tweeted it.) I’ve been saying for years that great interviews are collegial conversations. The interviewer wants to learn enough about the candidate to know: can the candidate do the job and fit our culture? The candidate wants to know: can I
I saw this post in ere.net, Do You Look for Cultural Fit or Innovation, as if you could somehow separate the two. Oh my, the confusion about cultural fit abounds. Let me set the record straight. Cultural fit is NOT about a person’s preferences outside of work. It’s not about what you would to a
I gave the “same” talk twice last week, at Agile Boston. Now, I never memorize my talks, so it’s never the same talk. I record my talks so I can learn from them. I had to select which talk I uploaded to slideshare. Tough decision! I decided to upload the first talk, because I thought
Shane Hastie, my sometime coauthor, and sometime co-teacher, interviewed me for InfoQ about Hiring Geeks That Fit. We had a great time, and the interview shows it. I hope you enjoy the interview. One of the things I say in the interview is, “Hiring should be a team sport, too.” I’m speaking at Agile Boston