I thought that most of my readers were inside large-ish organizations, where they had people to worry about the budget for them. But it appears that some of you are owners of or work for smaller (generally consulting) organizations, where you (lucky you!) make the decision about when to hire another person. There are two […]
I recently received an email asking me about salary ranges for architects and project managers. The author of the email wasn’t sure which job to take, and thought he’d make a decision based on money. Candidates, don’t make a decision based on money. Do what you love to do. Certainly there are people who are
A colleague was wound up in knots. He’d been interviewing with a company where he really wanted a job. The job was a step up in responsibility, the product was “way cool,” and the commute was 10 minutes. His current job was a technology he was tired of, the company was in the decreasing sales
Whether you’re organizing a project team or hiring a whole new test group, you need to discover if the testers you’re considering can perform the job you need them to perform or not. When you think about the job, don’t just think about the testing—although that’s critically important. Consider these skills when you’re defining what
The third biggest hiring mistake I see is when hiring managers don’t consider cultural fit issues with candidates. I don’t mean small/large company, although that’s a common question hiring managers ask. Here are more cultural fit issues: The personality diversity of the team. If you have a team of introverts (not uncommon), think about that
The second biggest hiring mistake I see is to hire for the eventual future — but not to create the future from the current reality. I see this mostly when hiring managers and senior staff. Here are some examples: A CTO knows he needs a program manager to manage multiple releases and release operations, so
As part of an interview, a reporter asked me what the single biggest mistake managers make when hiring. Unfortunately, I see three common mistakes: Hiring based on a tools checklist (some number of years of Java or WinRunner or some other tool) as opposed to hiring someone who can adapt his/her knowledge to the products
Take a look at Boston Red Sox: Backstop Your Business. (Read the PDF or the printer-friendly version.) Here’s my big take-away: You have to know what differentiates your top performers from everyone else — and it’s not a single dimension measurement. If you live in a yank-and-rank organization, figure out what you need to do
Take a look at Personality for a psychologist’s view of using any personality test for hiring. I particularly liked these quotes: It means that our everyday belief that people are consistently “themselves” across a wide variety of kinds of circumstances is unfounded.Given enough time to understand a person’s situational patterns, and a reasonably clear description
While perusing some of the Joel on Software discussions, I saw the pointer to “Mini-me” syndrome…a major hiring risk for companies. Heather discusses her concerns: Recruiting from certain schools can prevent you from hiring the best — because that recruiting limits your intake of candidates. It tightens your screen before you’ve even gotten to resume