Hiring Geeks That Fit

by Johanna Rothman

Hiring a person for your team is the single most important decision you can make. It has long-lasting impact, whether you are the manager or a team member. Would you like to learn to hire great people? Not sure how? You need this book.

Great geeks are not the same as skill-based staff. You need to analyze your culture, determine your problems, define the essentials you need in a candidate, and then you’re off and running.

Great geeks adapt their knowledge to your context. One developer or technical manager is not interchangeable with another. Hiring Geeks That Fit takes the guesswork and cost out of hiring.

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This work was written and produced entirely by the author. We are proud to be distributing it.

Do you want to hire great people? Not sure how? Read this book.

Knowledge workers - your geeks - are different from skill-based staff. So, you should hire them differently. You need to analyze your situation, determine the problems you have, understand your culture, and then you can hire the right kinds of people.

Cultural fit is critical, because we rarely fire people based on technical skill. But we frequently fire them because of that elusive “fit.” And, that’s an expensive proposition.

Hiring great geeks forces you to recognize and match culture, non-technical qualities, preferences and skills, and finally, technical skills. These people will adapt their knowledge to your specific situation, the context. They are the sum of both what they know and how they apply that knowledge to the product.

As a result, one developer, tester, or technical manager is not interchangeable with another. This makes hiring technical people one of the most critical and difficult processes a technical manager or team can undertake.

Hiring Geeks That Fit takes the guesswork out of hiring and reduces the risk of costly hiring mistakes. You’ll learn how to:

• Develop a hiring strategy so you know how to solve your problem
• Analyze the job, so the job description and ad falls out of the analysis
  I Source candidates, using a variety of approaches including LinkedIn and Twitter
• Develop effective ads for different mediums
• Review résumés quickly to determine Yes, No, or Maybe candidates
• Develop behavior-description questions and auditions
• Create phone screens that help you know who to bring in for an in-person interview
• Make the most of an in-person interview
• Check references
• Extend an offer that will attract a win-win acceptance or tender a gentle-but-decisive rejection
• Create a great first day experience for new hires
• Learn how to create a buddy system to decrease the cost of a new hire
• What to do if you can’t find someone

You, your team, and your organization will live with the long-term consequences of your hiring decision. Investing the time for you and your team in how to hire and interview will pay off fast.

This book was written and produced entirely by the author. We are proud to be distributing it.

Releases:

• P3.0 2013/07/31
• P2.0 2013/02/27
• P1.0 2013/02/19

Dedication

Preface

Part 1: Manage Your Hiring Time excerpt

Develop Your Hiring Strategy excerpt

Analyze the Job

Write the Job Description

Part 2: Source and Select Candidates to Interview

Source Candidates

Develop Ads for Open Positions excerpt

Review Résumés

Part 3: Prepare to Interview Candidates

Develop Interview Questions and Techniques excerpt

Create and Use Phone-Screens

Plan and Conduct the In-Person Interview excerpt

Follow Up After the Interview

Part 4: Bring In the Candidate

Check References

Make an Offer the Candidate Will Accept

Part 5: Make the Most of Hiring Opportunities to Manage Uncertainty and Risk

Create a Great First Day

Hire Technical Managers

Move Forward

Part 6: Templates and More

Appendix A: Templates to Use When Hiring Geeks That Fit excerpt

Bibliography

More from Johanna

I consult, speak, and write on managing high-technology product development. I’ve helped managers, teams, and organizations to become more effective by applying my pragmatic approaches to their issues of hiring, project management, risk management, and people management.

I’m the author of Predicting the Unpredictable: Pragmatic Approaches to Estimating Project Schedule or Cost, Manage Your Job Search, Hiring Geeks That Fit, Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects, Manage It! Your Guide to Modern Pragmatic Project Management, Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (with Esther Derby), and Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People.