Job Hacking

What attracts great candidates?

When you're writing a job ad, this is a big, big question. You can sit and stare at a blank page for a while and not get the answer.

It's simple: It's the work.

Great candidates want to do something. They want to make an impact. They want to change the world.

Tell them that. Tell them how their being on your team is going to be a game-changing experience for them, and their career.

Pretty simple, actually.

Can't really think of why someone would think that this job would be a game-changing experience? Could be you've lost your passion for the work, the team, the company. Time for you to go find a new job somewhere else!

What's it like to work for you?

Let's say you're a hiring manager. Do you know what it's like to work for you? Do you know what it's like to work for your overall group, or your company?

Most hiring managers will say, "Yeah, of course I do. I have weekly 1:1s w/my staff, and we shoot the shit. I have a solid grasp on my team."

O.K., Mr./Ms. Smartypants, here's a test. Write down what you think your people would say to the following questions:

• Why did you decide to come to work for this group?
• Why did you decide to come to work for this company?
• Why do you continue to work on this team v. going to another group?
• Why do you continue to work at this company v. going to another one?
• What makes you come in each day to this job - what's the driving force for your working here?
• What's the best part about this job?
• What's the best part about this company?
• What's the worst part about this job?
• Which 3 areas can your team improve the most?
• Which 3 areas can your boss improve the most?
• Which 3 areas can the company improve the most?

Then, go have someone besides you go through an interview w/your staff and see what their answers are. Anonymous will be best, of course. (This might be a good time to engage your HR Generalist as they might be able to help A LOT with this, although one can also make the case for some other trusted source as well.)

How do they synch up? Were you spot-on across the board?

Now, the hard part.

Take all this and use it the next time you need to go find someone new for your team. Use the words your staff uses to describe the best parts, and avoid using the words that describe the worst parts, and you're well on your way to having the beginnings of a very attractive job ad.

Would you know a great job ad if it bit you in your a$$?

All you hiring managers out there, here's a test.

Q: What makes for a great job ad?
A: Copy that attracts the best possible candidate for the role.

Now, let's see how good you are at assessing job ads. Go to www.craigslist.com. Go to the software/qa/db jobs section (or your relevant section if you're not a Software Team Leader). Review the first 25 ads.

Now, did any of them do anything for you emotionally? Was there any one ad that caught your eye and made you think, "Hmm, back in the day, that might have been good for me."

There's a very good chance that you did not actually see one ad that met this criteria.

My question to you: Why would you post up any ad other than one that is attractive to your audience?

Do you know what would be attractive to your audience?

A thought on handling ageism

Nick has a nice post on how to beat age objection.

Generally, I agree with this advice. Thing is that it's a heck of a lot easier to do this if you're in the running for a Sales, Biz-dev or Product Marketing role.

What do you do about this if you're a Developer or a Program Manager and you really don't know what your exact bottom-line impact has been?

Simple, shift to a metric that means something to the business.

For example, on Wednesday, I was speaking w/a Web Developer, and he told me a story about creating a Javascript library that would take the place of a bunch of hand-coding his peers had to do across a number of projects. End result was that their projects were getting completed earlier and were more likely to hit their dates, too. He might have a hard time saying what the direct impact was to the profitability of the firm in terms of dollars and cents, but he could easily state that the projects were getting done 1 - 2 months earlier than before. Any manager knows that's good stuff.

As to you recent college grads who don't think this applies to you because you lack wrinkles and know Ruby, think again. Business is about making a profit. At any age. In any century you want to name.

Labor Day Special: Be nice to HR & Recruiting

Last Tuesday, I read a post by one of my new favorite HR Bloggers, Punk Rock HR regarding her observation that 90% of her buddies in HR are looking for work.

Based on her blog post, and a few other observations I can't share publicly, it appears to me that the economic downturn across the U.S. is having a direct effect on the HR & Recruiting functions at many companies. What it comes down to is that companies are cutting back on areas that are cost centers, and in many cases (not all), HR & Recruiting are considered cost centers.

Managerial Accounting Tip: There are 4 large money buckets companies are concerned with, and in rough order of importance: 1) Cash (increase); 2) Revenue (increase); 3) Costs (reduce); 4) Profits (increase). Generally, in an economic downturn, companies focus a lot of attention on protecting their Cash, and do various things to increase Revenue if possible. They also methodically go through all Costs and work to reduce them. Hopefully, these actions result in more Profit, which is a great trick in a down economy.

Here's the scenario: You're working in Recruiting at a F500 company. And suddenly, there's a super-double-secret hiring freeze. You get assigned some other make-work tasks for a while. But then, the hiring freeze extends, and one day you, your peers, and your boss all get the dreaded pink slip because Recruiting is "not strategic", e.g. it does not bring in revenue.

Note to all you CxOs out there: If you have figured out how to NOT take this action, give yourself a gold star! There are ways to keep your recruiting function tip-top at all times, and they truly mark a great business strategist from the rest of the crowd.

For all you Developer-types out there looking for a job, your contacts within the recruiting function of some of the firms you'd like to work for are going to be unhappy, stressed, and probably doing a sub-par job. My suggestion to you is to give these people a break, and maybe even be nice to them (shocking, I know). They are doing their best to help the company find people like you, and after all, that's probably why they got into HR or Recruiting in the first place!

re: What not to say during a job interview

Marcelo has a very clear post of what he does not like in resumes and interviews based on his current searches. What's great about this is that he's the CEO at a great little Seattle Start-up, so it's a great view into his mind. And that of other start-up CEOs.

Ever wonder if HR is good at the interviewing process?

There are occasions when I talk to a candidate, and they really seem to want to grind their axe about how HR is messed up, and doesn't know how great a candidate they are, etc., etc. Sometimes, it almost seems as though the person in question thinks there is a super-secret HR Society that has it out for everyone not in the club.

In case you have this notion, check out this post written by an HR pro regarding a recent interview she had.

The moral to this story is that you should look for evidence of the importance a firm places on its people, and if the higher-ups in the HR organization don't value their own, it's pretty much guaranteed the rest of the company doesn't value their people either.

I'd put $5 on it...

What are the criteria that define a good developer?

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to ask a long-time software developer & manager about what he's seen in the recruiting process for software development talent that works (yes, many years, and yes, at many very recognizable companies, and he asked that he not be named). Specifically, what types of measurable criteria has he seen used to good effect in hiring the right people, or building a great team.

Our conversation went all over the map. We compared the hiring practices of some notable large companies in the area (cough, Microsoft, cough, Amazon, cough, Adobe, cough, cough). We also spoke about the methods he's used at the companies he's worked at, and which skill areas he thinks he can measure accurately in any given candidate.

The end result: He doesn't think there are any statistically valid criteria being used in hiring Software Developers by any firm. Further, he thinks that many companies are deluding themselves with their statistics. "We hire 90% of the top candidates for our team" - but how do they know? Do they conduct A/B tests on the candidates, which would force them to NOT hire developers they think are great?

Does anyone out there have any sound statistical methods they use in hiring their developers? Have you personally gone through a hiring process that you thought measured your skills accurately, and also gave you a good sense of the work you were about to perform?

Recruiting Truth

Everyone is a candidate, all the time.

The only question is what are the parameters that would be attractive to you in your next job.

If you are a software engineering-type in the U.S., and you're reasonably good at what you do, you should assume from here on out you will be regularly contacted by recruiters. Instead of saying 'no, not interested', say "yes, and here are the top 3 or 5 key items that would make me consider looking at a new role".

One of those items should definitely be salary (then title, work content, product, team, etc). For those of you happy in your role, there should be a premium to get you to move. Make sure it's well above market. Remember, you're good, and you're happy where you are. There is always risk in moving to a new role!

Put it this way, it's much easier to say 'no' with a big price tag, plus you might be surprised at what you find out regarding a new opportunity.

Web Devs Needed!

I'm helping a startup in Bellevue find a Web Developer or two. The ideal candidate should be an experienced developer, and and they should have experience working on the LAMP stack technologies in a commercial setting.

If you're interested, or you know someone who might be, email me!