If you are like many hiring managers I know, you don’t like to write job ads. You find them boring to write. When they are boring to write, many candidates find them boring to read. You don’t have to make your ads boring. Have you read Pradeep Soundararajan’s ad for his VP? Here is his […]
I recently worked with a hiring manager who was having trouble with his job ads. They were not working for him. The ads were not screening out the more senior people. They were not screening in the more junior people. As part of the problem solving, I asked him to send me the job analysis
I’m seeing ads for what should be agile program managers on LinkedIn. I can’t tell what these positions really are, but when they say “responsible for management of 15 scrum teams,” that’s an agile software program manager to me. But the distressing part of the ad is when it’s a US-based position with a base
I’m teaching PSL this week with Esther and Jerry. I met one of the participants for the first time yesterday morning, and he thanked me for writing the Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers book. I thanked him, and asked what he liked the best. He said that the advice about thinking about the attractors for
Recently, a reader asked me about applying for a project management job. She was missing a particular technical tool, but had plenty of what seemed to me as reasonable job experience. I suggested she apply anyway. When I see an ad (or a job description) focused on tools, I am sure that the hiring manager
Via Keith Ray, I saw Cory Foy’s Great Job Posting. The reason this ad works is that it’s congruent for the job the developer will do. Wish I’d thought of an ad like that.
A colleague emailed me this question today: “I’m looking for Agile and extreme programming jobs, and I keep seeing stuff like this. Are there really people searching for jobs described as having extreme workloads?” Here’s what he saw: “incumbent regularly works under deadlines and is capable of handling extreme workloads” Ok, I have several reactions
I may not have been blogging much these days, but I have been busy. I’ve posted three templates to my website. Job analysis template (in pdf) Job description template (in pdf) Job advertisement template (in pdf) As with all templates, the key is in the writing. I’m still organizing m site, so if you want
Lisa Haneberg, in her post, How do we define a job – Part 2, develops a prototype for a job posting. She does a great job. She starts with a main attractor, adds in the essential qualities, preferences, and skills, and talks about who should not apply.A job description is not an ad. Posting a
Eric Sink’s ad for a software developer is a terrific example of an ad that screens out people who aren’t suitable for the position. Note the description of deep expertise in that SQL stuff, and the emphasis on knowing how to read code, not just write code. Sure Eric may receive a bunch of unsuitable