A few colleagues have had this experience. They get a call about a job. It looks like a great fit. They apply. They go through all the interviewing. It takes forever. And, they don’t get the job. One asked, “Is it ok to ask why?” Sure, it’s ok to ask. Just don’t have a fight […]
When I was about 8 or 9, my father taught me to shake hands. “No limp fish!” he explained as he taught me to grip the other person’s hand making sure our thumbs met. (I really hate it when men prevent me from shaking hands properly by grabbing my fingers instead of my palm. They’re
Before my webinar last week, I was chatting with the organizer, and experienced project manager. He said that when he interviewed a project manager, and hear words such as “I control projects” that’s a red flag for him. No, he’s not an agile project manager–he’s a smart and effective project manager who realize that people
I’m writing about a post a week for ITJobBlog. I’ve already written a couple of posts about how to develop your interview skills when you’re a candidate, part 1 and part 2. Please join us over there, too!
I’ve been in email contact with Pradeep Soundararajan for a few months now. He was recently at a conference in Toronto, and has posted his The (bad) state of software testing interviews in India, which includes a pdf of a talk he gave about interviewing. He has several wonderful ideas, including: Candidate and interview myths
Art Petty has a great post, Capturing Talent and Creating Great Customer Experiences: They Go Together. I really liked this part: A manager that takes mid-interview smoke breaks and badgers a talented candidate about salary expectations is someone that I want working for my competitor. I’m still astounded when I hear stories like that.
Jack Vinson writes in New Grad Hires: Ready and Willing, but Are They Able?, The solution is to hire people who have the general skills, capability, and/or experience you need and then train them in the missing aspects. That’s the way it has always been. For technical staff, expect to spend time helping them develop
I ran a workshop recently about hiring for an agile team, and one of the people learning to interview said, “I want a candidate who can take criticism.” I replied, “Don’t you mean feedback?” He asked, “What’s the difference?” Oh, boy. Plenty. Criticism is when you you’re looking at a piece of code and you
Joan Lloyd has a great post that I saw at Don’t turn down the new job before asking these questions by Joan Lloyd bizjournals.com. Her questions are: * What specific results are you expecting in the first three months? Six? One year? How will you measure those results? * To whom can I go for
Kristan Vingrys has a great post, A question I have found useful when interviewing candidates. His question: You are allocated a training budget, what is the first course, conference or workshop you would attend? This is an excellent question to see if people are keeping up with thinking about what they want to learn. I