Hiring Juice

Hiring Managers: Know Who You Are Working With

2012-04-20T16:45:47Z

You have been waiting for this position to open officially so you can fill it officially. Even more exciting, you've been given approval to use outside recruitment agencies in the search. Your immediate thought is more candidates and ideally better ones due to a larger resource pool – but before you know it, the excited feeling has devolved into a cocktail of feeling overwhelmed, overlapped and oversold.

It's a common thought that if you work with unlimited recruiters you'll receive a large number of candidates – aka "options" – and from there, you're confident in your own ability to reel them in. If it were only that simple! We are in the most competitive hiring market since 1999. It's going to take more than a nice email or a "hot startup" pitch to get the A-players in the door. So think again and remember that identification is only the first part of a successful recruitment outcome.

More important, delivery of solid recruitment results comes from leveraging relationships to ensure and align mutual interests and shared understanding of expectations. To do this effectively and efficiently (because we all know time is money) I'm sure you would prefer to bet on more than buzz words on a piece of paper.

Figure out how well you know who you are working with:

Does your recruiter meet the candidate before you do?
Is there an understanding of objective, experience, hot buttons, personal details per candidate?
Are they knowledgeable about the technology, or better yet passionate about it?
Can you genuinely sense their vested interest in your success and the success of your product/company?
Do you have a relationship with your recruiter?
Has the recruiter impressed you?

Keep it simple and remember people hire people. If you want to be successful in today's tech hiring market, then know who you are working with.

Your CTO Screens Resumes?

2012-03-23T17:49:48Z

A resume is undoubtedly important, but it will only take you so far. You can’t condense a lifetime of experiences and skills into a few pages of buzzwords and employment dates. It is helpful for identifying a software developer from an executive chef, but any effective hiring manager can tell you that the interview is where the real work happens.

What’s surprising is how much emphasis some organizations still place on the paper and not on the person. One company, a Fortune 500 media juggernaut that employs thousands of people across three continents, goes so far as to pass every single new hire’s resume by the CTO before extending any job offers. Yes, you read that correctly-- every single resume. Long after the hiring manager has given the thumbs up, after additional tech screenings by engineers in other departments, and following the “Cultural Ambassador” discussion, the resume still sits in the CTO’s inbox because let’s face it, a CTO has more important things to do. The software engineer has taken another offer by now because the company in question is in the process of acquiring a national newspaper, and the CTO doesn’t have enough time to look at a JavaScript programmer’s resume, let alone eat or sleep.

I bet you’re saying, “What a waste of executive bandwidth.” However, before you come down too hard on Mystery Media Co, ask yourself how much emphasis your organization places on that same resume. Who have you given the onerous task of wading through the flood of paper coming across your doorstep? Do you forward them to Human Resources, who has to screen resumes for thirteen different jobs at once? Your lead developer, who’s already running behind on production? A senior programmer, who can tell a good from a bad resume, but is considering sending his own to your competitor so he can actually finish some work?

Outsource, communicate and relax. It’s as simple as that. Outsource the process of screening and qualifying to the agency, communicate your requirements to the recruiter, and focus on hitting that next target. Your recruiter will sort through the chaos and show you the winners. If he’s worth the commission, the candidates he chooses will be ready and eager to speak with you and learn more about the awesome projects you’re working on. Candidates should absolutely meet with someone senior, but if any part of your executive team knows what your new hire’s college GPA or the end date of a position she held six years ago, it’s time to reprioritize.

How to Create a Continuous Recruitment Process

2012-03-20T18:57:29Z

A continuous recruitment process is an ongoing, real-time information stream regarding candidates, companies, and products in your market. While the traditional value of recruitment is defined as “filling jobs” and still is to a certain extent, it, like all other product/services, has evolved and as a hiring manager you should now expect more from your favorite recruiter (in-house or external). A good recruiter should work to discover direct competitors of yours that you’ve never heard of but should know, they should create a direct pipeline of feedback from your users or even become one themselves, and of course last but not least, not simply identifying talent, but delivering it towards your business needs.

Recruitment is more than just identification. The goal of any recruitment partnership should be to deliver, not simply identify talent. Keep this in mind when designing your process.

Input equals output. Good technical recruiters are priceless. But like all investments, it takes money to make money and in this case we are talking in terms of time, communication, and commitment. If you expect your trusted recruiter to spend unlimited hours, commit to finding you the best talent in the world, and communicate all the while, then expect to reciprocate.

Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. Tell them what you need now and what you envision in the future. Share your story. Give constructive feedback on candidates that are a good fit as well as those that are not. Remember that every minute that they spend chasing you down for feedback is another minute taken away from the process moving forward. Give them some credit. Positioned as such, a recruitment process has a unique vantage point into any situation. Typically, they have very valuable first-hand information and access to real-time updates from the evolving market. Some are truly passionate about business, learning, technology, building companies, studying business models, and so much more than just matching buzz words, spamming resumes, and waiting for their clients to do all of the work and hopefully hire someone. So find one you like and one that delivers, treat them with respect and give them some credit. After all, one day they may be the CEO with funding and connections, building a team that you just might want to be a part of.

Hiring Managers: Ask Better Interview Questions

2011-12-07T14:57:15Z

We are in the tightest candidate market in recent memory and hiring managers continue to squander hiring opportunities by asking irrelevant and impracticable interview questions. Ultimately this allows the candidate with multiple opportunities, a reason to focus on more engaging interview processes. Don’t get me wrong, there is not a candidate in the market that misunderstands the purpose or thought behind the Google interview. In fact, most candidates agree for the type of company and culture Google promotes, this hiring method is quite effective. The consensus is that asking candidates why manhole covers are round, or how to fit a giraffe in a refrigerator, will result in a room filled with insanely smart researches that consistently find theories worth proving wrong and/or right. Many of these will fizzle out via extensive R&D, prototype and test. While fewer and far between, will actually make it to market. Furthermore, the flaw is that there is only one Google yet a majority of the companies hiring try this approach first before finding frustration and alternative interview methods.

Yes there is value to knowing Linked List by definition and off the top of your head, but at the end of the day implementations such as this are often times saved on a Safari bookshelf or one key stroke away from copy and paste.

Why is this important you ask? Because with an already depleted candidate market to begin with, it is ever more important to keep candidates engaged in the process and becoming a part of the solution. And if you are part of a business that has clearly defined goals and trajectory then hiring someone who can help stay on track and accomplish said goals is more important than patenting the world’s longest algorithm.

Keep things simple, get the candidate engaged:

Here is a problem we’re trying to solve currently. How would you go about tackling this problem?
Here is a problem we just solved. At first we tried it this way but it was a fail. Do you know why?
We have an X-week release cycle. What is your current development release cycle and how would you adjust coding habits to our current cycle?
In the near future we are thinking about this new feature. If you had a say in the choice of technology what would you choose and why?
I know you are an engineer, but if I asked you to QA this application where would you start? What order would you proceed?
If three senior managers approached you in the same day with problems called “urgent” how would you prioritize

This approach will allow you subjectively analyze the answer content while identifying whether or not this candidate will bring fresh and new perspective and experience to the team. In summary, the idea behind interviewing is getting a feel for how someone solves problems and uses the resources available. In this tight market, you may want the guy who nails the “google interview”, but guess what: Google wants that person to ;)

Hiring During the Holidays

2011-11-09T14:05:16Z

Hiring during the Holidays isn't a bad time to hire. It's the most honest job market you can get, but it's incredibly competitive to not only find people but to make sure that they start.

Where do you find talent?

2011-09-18T01:26:00Z

Where do you find talent?

That is the question I’ve been asked more recently than any other. There is no isolated answer and for those who are currently spending countless hours and endless amounts of money trying to perfect the recruitment process with software – good luck.

My answer is an honest and simple one – get out and be a part of the community. This post by Robert Scoble aka @scobleizer following our one-on-one dinner is a great use case on this exact topic. Throughout the post he references the idea of taking on the unknown. He also uses the term “random” more than once and that works for me too. In his case he appreciated meeting me. In your case, it could be meeting the next lead engineer that helps you drive home a multi-million dollar initiative.

The traditional approach to hiring of posting ads, collecting resumes, conducting a batch of phone screens which lead to technical screens, which lead to more technical screening… are out. Open source technologies are converging on enterprise integration and the community is growing. The push is self-organization – being proactive and getting out to Meetups, conferences, Tweetups, Hackfests and/or any other type of event you can think of that is centered around technology.

Attending a social function to find engineers may have been an awkward suggestion at best or a hypocritical suggestion perhaps – even five years ago. Today though, that is the only way to truly build a network of expanding interest and attraction within the developer community. Next time you are sitting in your office late at night trying to figure out why it has been so hard to fill your open role, ask yourself when was the last time you actually went out into the community and actually talked to people about the project, vision and opportunity on your team.

So where do I find talent? Put yourself on an edge.

Hiring Managers: Manage Yourself First

2011-09-07T01:14:49Z

I hear a lot of managers talk about the proper way to manage people. There are many different theories on how to motivate your team in a way that makes them perform at very high levels, but everything comes down to not what you say but what you do that motivates your team to perform.

The days of commanding and controlling your team are largely over and there's a new cloud of awareness centered around the idea of empowering your employees. The idea of making your employees feel replaceable doesn't motivate them to perform at unusual levels, it makes them perform just enough to keep their job away from the firing squad. However, the confident manager allows every interaction with their team to foster the idea of mutual dependence.

Be Humble

It's a virtue, yes, but every manager struggles with this at the start and for some it cements into their management style and they don't know why people don't like working for them. Many new managers are nervous about proving themselves, so they end up discouraging their subordinates from speaking up and thereby fail to benefit from their experience. In other words they rely on war stories from the past to use to teach and instead of teaching it turns out to be just gloating on how the manager solved a similar problem in the past.

The tone can be, listen to me because you know nothing and I know everything. Ask yourself next time you find yourself waxing on about a situation that happened in the past, "Am I giving absurd details on how I figured out problem because it's relevant to a current problem or am I just making myself look better?"

You're just showcasing your own insecurities if you go on and on about yourself. People want to know your stories, but tell them when you're asked and don't go on about what you've done to get where you are today. So recount your experiences very briefly, but only if they directly relate to a current issue that needs to be solve.

Prove to your people not that you have a record as a problem solver but that your ideas and advice can help them now.

Finally, remember to share both your mistakes and your successes. Achieving that balance brings you down to earth in the eyes of your team, and it makes you reflect on why you are telling stories in the first place.

Don't Be Obsessed with the Rules

Rules are a good thing but to simply state the rules because they're a rules isn't enough for the motivated team member. You need to understand and state the why behind the rules so that the person understands why they're there even though they may not agree with them. It becomes more about the manager doing a great job being a manager and following the rules and less about cultivating a team of people that feel like they have the ability to change things within the organization. No one wants to work with the manager who can't affect change.

If you find yourself continually referencing the "hand book" to solidify to your people why you're making a decision your team will soon realize that you're not a manager but the police to make sure you're following the rules. You will lose your team's confidence very quickly as the person they entrust with their career and the smart ones will seek out the person who wrote the "hand book" to further themselves and effect change within an organization.

Listen and Show It

One of my turning points in my career was when I first started with my organization and the COO, Brian, was visiting Chicago from Boston for one reason or another. We went out as a region one night and had a few beers, Brian sat down with me and started asking questions about who I was and what I was looking to do here. It became very apparent to me, a month into the job and by far the most junior person in the region, that Brian was listening to my every word. He wasn't looking elsewhere when I was talking but he was looking right in my eyes and commenting on my stories. We talked about my upbringing, college and a few stories about my early obsession with U2 and a new band called Kings of Leon. The conversation went on for about an hour at the bar we were at and soon the rest of the senior region left to go home, leaving myself and my COO just chatting one on one. I remember apologizing to Brian for taking up his time while the more accomplished people were leaving, surely he didn't travel from Boston to chat with an unproven trainee. It mean a lot to me.

It wasn't until a year later, however, that it really started to impact me on how great of a leader Brian truly was. I saw Brian in Boston this time for a company party and out of 300 people, Brian came up to me and immediately reference our conversation about U2 how, after our conversation, went to listen to Kings of Leon and how he didn't agree that they were similar to a U2. I was floored. Not only did Brian recognize that the time he spent with me meant more to me than if he had spent that same time with someone who was more "worthy" of his time but he remembered it. Brian knew how to get more out of his time.

The point is that communication is multifaceted. Not only did Brian listen to me, he was 100% present in our conversation. His body language was engaged, he looked into my eyes when I spoke and then he referenced the conversation a year later. Every time I spoke to Brian and still to this day realize that every word I choose to say with Brian is heard. This taught me one of the most valuable lessons in how to manage people effectively and it happened before I was even managing people. If people know that you're listening and processing what they say they will make sure they look to impress you every time they interact with you. That breeds a culture of people looking to impress and everyone performs at a high level if they're continually looking to impress one another. They stop trying to impress when they feel you're not even noticing their efforts.

First Round Interview? No, First Round Impressions

2011-08-10T18:06:35Z

Preface: This post is written less as my opinion and more as a culmination of all the feedback (use cases) some four thousand high-end technology professionals have given me over the past three plus years.

We are in one of the tightest, if not the tightest candidate markets since, well…forever. More open positions than qualified candidates and new companies sprouting up every day (like the dot com). That said, the technical community has maintained a very high bar for talent and experience to make the cut when interviewing (not so much like the dot com). Modern day job descriptions look like a good action story super hero or better yet, Mark Zuckerberg. This and the fact that many still think we are in a soft market due to lasting effects of a recession, lead to ineffective first round interviews often, so I hear.

The first round interview is a first impression of your organization, and a lasting one. With the supply-and-demand curve favoring them, candidates are more likely to just move on from a bad experience. So, is it better to cover technical strengths? Or weaknesses? Code test?

If you use this simple model while conducting first round interviews you’ll find the ability to make a good assessment while also leaving a great impression on each candidate you interview whether or not you decide to move forward with them in the process.

Set the agenda (Duration of the call and topics covered)
Start by asking about them (Above and beyond your resume, tell me your story)
Ask more questions about them (What technologies were you using, what are you building, team size, % breakdown of role)
Tell your story (Before this, when I got here, why I joined, since I joined, why I’m staying)
Tell the story of the company (Who, What, When/where we started, where we came from, where we are, where we are going)
Dive into the product/application (Core business, user base, market, competitors)
Detail the team break down (Overall employees, tech numbers, tech stack, seniority, tenure)
Light overview of the role as it pertains to the current business need (Describe business need in a way to objective the must have skills)
Ask an open ended question to incite communication and articulation from the candidate (Personalized question about their story)
Wrap up the call and set a reference point regarding next steps (Set up a second round at the end of a first round or check-in call if unsure)
Follow through with next step (Let the NOs go)

Be the First to Make a Job Offer

2011-07-12T00:48:58Z

The technical recruiting world in the last few months has been eye opening. The truth is that the current job market, at least in technology, is as competitive as ever. If you haven’t hired this year yet you need to read this article because things have drastically changed.

Across the country, different markets typically have very different market trends for a similar type of skill set. As an example, it might be much easier to find a C++ embedded candidate in San Jose than it would be in Philadelphia because of the type of companies located in either city that attract a certain type of skilled workers. Today it doesn’t matter if there’s a plethora of companies that employ a certain type of candidate or there’s only a few, the same blanket of frustration is draped over every metropolitan city in their hunt to find an appropriate candidate. You don’t have to be desperate to know that it’s frustrating and damaging when a position stays open.

The frustrating part of this is that when you do find that candidate you usually have plenty of competition. Aside from moving quickly which a lot of your competition is already doing, the key to landing your candidate is to make the right offer first and don’t seek to make an offer that you know you can counter.

Yes, you’re right, in negotiating a price everyone knows the tactic of lowballing and countering. You never know, they might accept your lowball offer first or you can meet in the middle somewhere. When you’re hiring someone, lowballing someone can and will be taken personally so if you make someone an offer that’s lower than their asking price it will turn them off even if you intended to counter them at a higher price. Lowballing says that if the person doesn’t take this offer than it’s not a big deal to you. That’s how they’re taking it and if that’s what you mean by making that offer, why are you making that offer in the first place?

So that concept should be cemented into every hiring manager’s head before extending an offer. Now what do you do when you want to hire a candidate that’s interviewing at multiple places with a few final round interviews scheduled? Do you make the offer and have them shut down their search or do you wait until they finish those final rounds to potentially beat your competition’s pending offers?

Be the first because:

There are candidates that know where they want to work before any offers get made and then there are candidates that will wait until all options are laid out in front of them. My thought is that if they’re willing to risk losing an offer to see the rest of their suitor’s offers then the first offer wasn’t their first choice anyway.
You’ll know quickly whether the candidate is serious about your opportunity and you don’t risk waiting for them to get all their offers to extend yours only to lose out anyway.
It shows confidence in your opportunity to be the first ones to extend an offer. Waiting to counter the candidate’s other offers shows you’re not a leader and not willing to take the first step.
Making the first offer also shows your decision making abilities, when you make a decision to move forward you move. How a company hires is how they manage.

So how do you make offers? Do you put your best foot forward first or do you wait until you see what the candidate is getting before slapping together your offer?

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

2011-06-20T14:02:05Z

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.