In his comment, Gregbo asks what I mean by “bad” judgment.
Here’s an incomplete list:
Frequent job changes, at least one job a year for several years
Months of no discernible work or lag times between jobs.
Titles that appear to move up and down the ladder.
There are more, but those are the common ones. Sometimes, people take jobs because they need a paycheck or health insurance (or both). Those people tend to feel as if their jobs are sucking the souls out of them. If you see a resume like that, don’t discard it. That candidate wants a good job–and may almost be desperate for a good job.
I once had a job for two weeks. The same week I was hired, I got a call to report to headquarters in another state, where they laid me off. I made a bad decision to take that job. Luckily, the hiring manager at my next job thought it was funny, and didn’t consider that small interlude a problem job.
So that’s what I mean by a “bad” decision. Candidates can’t tell if a company is on the skids, or will cancel the project they got hired for. If you’re a hiring manager or a recruiter, you have the opportunity to offer the candidate a great start in your organization. Don’t let your prejudices about length of service persuade you to avoid this candidate.
In his comment, Justice points to the other side of when to ask salary questions. Too early, and you have the problem outlined in When to Ask About Salary. Too late, and you have Justice’s problem.
The way you manage the salary question–which is admittedly the start of the salary negotiation–is in the phone screen. You have a chance to build rapport and to see if this person is worth pursuing. You haven’t led this person on, thinking there’s a potential offer when you finally realize the candidate and salary don’t match. And you’re not asking the question out of the blue, when the candidate doesn’t know you, and has no rapport with you.
That’s why I like the hiring manager to conduct all the phone screens. If you have an HR phone screen or a technical person phone screen, don’t ask the salary question until the hiring manager talks to the candidate.
Treat your candidates with respect, and they are then advocates for you and your organization. Asking about salary early–but in the phone screen–is one excellent way to build respect.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been updating my web pages, which includes (finally) updating my workshops. One of the workshop you might be interested in is Hiring for an Agile Team. Hiring for an agile team can be a bit trickier than for more traditional project teams. The issues of culture, and personal qualities, preferences, and no-technical skills are much more important than in a non-agile team. This workshop is a full day. If you took one of my 1/2 day hiring tutorials at any of the agile conferences, this workshop goes into more depth and explores the combination of questions and auditions that will help make your interviewing and selection successful.
If you want to try this workshop, I’ll be facilitating the half-day version at Agile development Practices in December.