Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant
Expert in Managing Product Development
Dave Liebreich gave me feedback yesterday that I’d forgotten to include a template of a rejection letter (after the interview) in the book. Argh. I’ve started an errata page for this and other potential problems. A rejection letter has only three components: No. Thank you. Good luck with your job search. Write the no part first. …
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I love it when the experts agree with me. So imagine my glee when reading, Against Types by Drake Bennet. The subtitle is “Personality tests are everywhere — from the workplace to the courtroom. But critics say the tests themselves don’t pass the test.” I don’t know anything about the academic personality tests used to …
Recently, I spoke with a senior manager who’d outsourced new development to a non-local group. The development team has worked together in the past, and knows each other well. However, they are used to working on mature products, where you can actually write down the requirements and have them stand still for a few months. …
In It’s the People, Stupid!” David Hornick quotes an unnamed friend discussing hiring (it looks as if it’s a startup): [T]he best advice I have for you is this: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES make any one of your first ten hires anything less than an outstanding, 10’s from all judges, blow your head off superstar. Then …
Some hiring managers use certifications to filter resumes. I specifically caution against that practice in the book. I’m not a fan of certifications. Michael Schrage’s column Hiding Behind Certification is another article about why certifications are not a good predictor of job success. Here are two quotes I particularly liked: “The truth — as we …
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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 …
I was talking to a hiring manager recently, and she said, “I’d like to get another developer just like Stan.” Well, Stan is a good guy and a talented developer, but why look for someone just like him? The manager explained, “I’m staffing a particularly risky project and with someone just like Stan, I know …
I write a “management fix” column (alternating with Esther and Elisabeth) for Better Software and February’s column was Two Candidates, One Position. Enjoy! Labels: hiring decision
© 2004 Johanna Rothman. This article was originally published in Better Software, February 2004. Scenario You have one open position to fill—two outstanding candidates. What do you do? Both candidates performed well in the interview and on a technical audition. You used behavior-description questions to understand what each candidate has accomplished professionally, and consensus decision-making to …
I spoke at a graduate class last week, presenting my “Interview with Ease” (candidate version, not the hiring version) workshop to the class. One of the questions that arose was: What do I do when I’m faced with a puzzle? In Down with Games and Puzzles, I suggested using an audition instead of a game …
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