Hiring Managers: Work With People Who Want to Work With You

Reflecting back on this post, I recognized a significant improvement in the hiring expectations throughout the community over the past two to three months. That being said, there are still enough needs out there that seem to be unbalanced that I thought to revisit the topic from another angle.

In many cases a simple request for smart engineers often times morphs into a half-human half-robot engineer request which, as far as I know, is still unrealistic. If one’s expectations refuse to be compromised then perhaps the project need should be revisited as well. This fast-paced M&A market, IPO in less than 4 years market, is pushing lean environments and agile shops that continuously look for the “top 1%”, “A Players”, “rock star”, etc. but seemingly do not often stop to ask, what is the long-term outcome of that recruitment target?

In many cases though, the end all be all skill set recruited is one that will inevitably run out of challenges and motivation just months into a project. This should come as no surprise though because it all starts in the interview and hiring process. (more on this)

Can I just put name tags on them?

Wouldn’t that be great if a candidate walked in with a name tag that said, “Hi, my name is Primadonna” or “Hi, I’m really looking for the top dollar and cutting edge technology with no allegiance to the company or product even though that is devastating to a consumer and overall product-centric market.” So the last one was a bit much but you get the point. Unfortunately the answer is no. I’m not even entirely sure that would be legal.

How to identify people who want to work with you

Look for people who seem interested in you, your company and your product from the beginning. This day in age there is simply too much information at our finger tips not to have researched an opportunity beforehand. With so much information available, what you should look for is someone who is passionate about your product/company, with a strong foundation, and great research skills. That is the person that will wake up in the middle of the night to research CoffeeScript and Node.Js to implement your latest web solution without you having to tell them to do so in the morning. If you are working with a recruiter then you should be able to rely on them to increase pre-interview interest and excitement by sharing your story with the candidate beforehand.

People who want to work with you know who you are when they meet you. They have a general understanding (if not more) of the industry, product and technology stack you are working with. Minimally they’ve googled your name to confirm it is something they are interested in at the root and walk in with an open mind and positive attitude. Positive and progressive thinking will lead to production. If you are looking for reasons to hire and people who want to work with you and the candidate is looking for a great opportunity and something to believe in, then the result will always be more productive than two parties coming together with the intention of screening one another out.