You may think the #MeToo tag doesn’t have anything to do with product development. Not so fast. When people behave badly (more often it’s men than women, but it can be either), the people suffer. When the people suffer, the product suffers. It suffers in development and it suffers in release. The issue is this: […]
Yegor Bugayenko asked me to be a guest on his podcast to talk about Hiring Geeks That Fit. I gladly accepted and the podcast is now up: Shift-M/10. We spoke about many issues in hiring: Laundry list/shopping list problem in job descriptions Starting with a “test” or a phone screen (I need to write a post
Now that you know what you expect from your Scrum Master’s job (the deliverables), and you know the essential and desirable skills (the first three tips), you can focus on creating the interview questions and audition. (If you have not yet read Six Tips for Interviewing Scrum Masters, Part 1 for the first three tips,
People want to know the “secret sauce” for hiring Scrum Masters and agile coaches. I wish it was easy to provide a standard set of questions. Because your agile team is unique, your questions should be different. However, there are some common qualities, preferences, and non-technical skills among Scrum Masters. First, do a job analysis
I gave a talk at the Action Networking group a few weeks ago. I promised to post my slides, and I finally have. Improve Your Social Networking Skills is up on slideshare. I do not claim to have the best social networking skills. I am a work in progress. However, I am improving them, daily
My friend and colleague, Gil Broza, is interviewing me for his Individuals and Interactions virtual training event. My topic? “Focus Keeps You Going.” If you read my personal kanban series a couple of weeks ago, you saw how my focus kept me going. Even with a big interruption last week, due to a death in
John Sumser is writing a series of articles about the hiring paradox on HR Examiner. Read the first one, The Hiring Paradox (Skills Gap 1). The gist is this: It takes more time to hire when you have more alternatives. And, boy oh boy, do employers have more alternatives right now. What I found fascinating
One of the most important things to do in an interview is to build rapport. I led a session last week at AYE, focused on conversations (not specifically interviews). One of the more memorable things I said is that you need to be personal but not intimate. A participant asked, “What is personal but not
I just read Most Likely to Succeed: How do we hire when we can’t tell who’s right for the job? by Malcolm Gladwell. He talks about how a football recruiter agonized over his decisions: …“This guy threw lasers, he could throw under tight spots, he had the arm strength, he had the size, he had
Jurgen’s post, How to Select a Fine Technical Manager, along with the posts he responded to prompted this one. I’m not agreeing much with Jurgen today. I suspect it’s because we have very different experience. In my experience, only technical people who want to manage want to be managers–unless HR has screwed up the salary