Hiring technical managers is different — and more difficult — than hiring technical people. When I hire a technical person, such as a developer, I look for design, implementation and debugging abilities as part of the candidate’s technical skill set. But when I hire managers, the rules are different. Technical managers don’t need to be […]
I recently spoke with a manager who’d just added another group of four people to his original group of three. “I was doing fine with my three people before I took over this group. I had time to manage and I was able to contribute to the application. Now, with seven people, I seem to
I’ll bet you’re one of those people who have too much to do. (I haven’t met anyone in the past few years who didn’t have too much to do, so it’s not much of a bet.) And, I suspect that you’re so busy with what you’re doing, that you haven’t yet thought of what you
The last few times I’ve taught project management, I’ve explained that multi-project context switching wastes time. The project managers agree with me. But then they ask the question, “How do I explain this to my management? They refuse to believe me.” Managers, especially senior managers, don’t believe context switching wastes time because all they do
© 2005 Johanna Rothman. Compensation isn’t just about money; for some workers, it’s about a job that satisfies them in other ways. Discover their interests and you just might save on salary. One of the toughest problems facing hiring managers is determining a fair and reasonable offer. Offer too little money and a candidate will
I’m excited to announce that Roy Osherove’s interview with me is now posted on IT Conversations. Here’s the link to the interview. Roy interviewed me about the hiring book, and of course we segued into project management and management issues. Enjoy!
In Greg’s provocative comment, he says, “The idea that contributor initiatives are a drag on an organization speaks more to the insecurity of the management than to its skills.” I’ve been noodling that comment since I received it. I agree with Greg that some managers are insecure enough to insist that they make all
If you’ve hired new people or transferred people into your group, you know that they’re not immediately productive when they start. If you’re lucky, they start to be useful in a month, but you most likely spend closer to six months or even a year before they raise the entire group’s productivity. One technique for
Read The Graphing Calculator Story. (Thank you to Obie Fernandez for finding this gem. Some ideas that stood out for me: The secret to programming is not intelligence, though of course that helps. It is not hard work or experience, though they help, too. The secret to programming is having smart friends. …he told
I’m teaching my older daughter how to drive, and I now realize why inexperienced drivers are so dangerous. They are inconsistent and unpredictable, because they are inexperienced. I can’t help her gain experience by making a list of all possible situations and explaining what she has to do. I have to generalize. Right now,