While I was in Sweden last week, my cover designer was busy, and I now have a cover, and a published book! Welcome to the updated hiring book: Hiring Geeks That Fit. Isn’t the cover great? I love it. This looks just like some places I’ve worked, which is why I like the cover so […]
Imagine this scenario per a comment: you’ve been contracting or consulting while you’ve been looking for a job. A potential hiring manager asks you, “What was your gross income?” as part of the interview. What do you say? “Oy vey” is not a good answer. Although it might be precisely what you are feeling. This
Workshop Objective: Hiring the right people at the right time in a high technology company remains a challenge even to experienced managers. This workshop prepares technical managers (or the HR folks who work with technical managers) for the preparation and hiring of people into the organization. Workshop Overview: This workshop walks you through a pragmatic approach to
Another key piece of culture is understanding a candidate’s background and preferences around rewards: what do you reward, how do you reward, and when. Let me be clear: I am not discussing what the organization should and should not reward here, although I have plenty of opinions. I am discussing how to detect what the
I bet you’ve seen teams like this: people are quiet, reserved and thoughtful. They discuss issues in moderated respectful tones and words. And, I bet you’ve seen teams whose favorite word is “brain-dead” when discussing ideas or people, who seem to need to have high volume discussions, and are loud. I bet you’ve seen teams
Dave’s comments on my most recent post got me thinking about doing a series of posts about interviewing for cultural fit. In my recent talks about management, I talk about cultural fit. One piece of cultural fit is knowing what you can discuss and not discuss. When you interview people, especially managers, you can’t ask,
I read a lot about speakers practicing authenticity. (Huh?) All the suggestions seem reasonable, yet contrived to me: act interested in your audience, use your current location in your speech, remember to thank people at the end of your speech. If you don’t want to be a speaker, don’t. If you do want to be
I was reading, Nervous about an interview? Try this! and thought, hmm, I’ve said something like that before, haven’t I? I have, but in slides (for my Hiring for an Agile Team tutorial and workshop and in my other workshops) and in person, but not on this blog. So, let me say it here: Good
I’ve been talking with a colleague who is looking for a job. He’s comparing two senior engineering jobs. At one interview, it was clear that the manager makes all the technical decisions. No, the manager doesn’t code anymore; he makes all the technical decisions though, for a 12-person group. At the other job, it looked
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