George Dinwiddie asked me a question in email, “Why do companies hire junior-level contractors? I feel bad about spending the company’s money trying to teach these junior contractors to be better software developers. A junior-level direct hire makes sense, as you expect them to be around long enough that the education pays off. But a junior contractor seems like a total waste–training someone for the benefit of a later engagement, probably with another company.”
Sometimes, I just don’t understand the money games companies play. It’s “cheaper” in terms of money outlay to hire junior contractors, because you don’t pay benefits. But, you also don’t receive the value of the money. You’re investing in a person who can’t possibly stay long enough for you to get the payback.
The problem is you can’t measure a single person’s costs or productivity. You hve to remember that it’s the team’s cost and the team’s productivity. Any new hire will reduce the team’s overall productivity. That’s one reason I advocate assigning a buddy for a while, so only one person is directly affected by questions.
But it takes anywhere from 6-12 months for people to become effective in an organization. How long do your contractors last? Many organizations (in the US) have a rule about eliminating contractors in a year. If you’ve hired junior contractors, you’ve just wasted the money you spent for a year on that contractor, and reduced the productivity of the team.
If you believe you need to hire junior contractors, think hard about what you and the team will get out of them.
Organizations suffer with bad resources because they don’t know how to ask for good resources.
I wish I’d been there. I bet this was a great talk! I don’t think Pradeep had heard of my book until that conference, so he did buy one while he was there. I’m sure we will keep up our email conversation.
A manager that takes mid-interview smoke breaks and badgers a talented candidate about salary expectations is someone that I want working for my competitor.
I’m still astounded when I hear stories like that.
I recently met a lead whose business card read “Lead Phoenix Developer.” I asked what that meant, and he explained that he was a technical lead for an project code-named Phoenix. His business card could have read “Lead Developer” or “Technical Lead” and made much more sense.
This almost happened to me today. I’m the conference chair (the program manager for the whole conference) for Agile 2009 (in Chicago, August 2009). Internally, I think that position is called “program director”–but I’m not selecting any part of the actual conference. The program piece is that the position is like a program manager position. I asked to be called the conference chair instead. That’s what I’ll be calling myself!
If you have internal names for jobs, that’s fine. Keep the internal and external names separate.
Many hiring managers are looking for initiative, especially for agile team members. (In agile, the team members self-organize, which means they are looking for ways to do work better and to solve problems without requiring management’s involvement.)
I was thinking about initiative how to look for it, and I realized that at least some people with high initiative are only one small step away from being entrepreneurs. Sometimes it can be difficult to see where initiative ends and entrepreneurship begins. Should you hire people who have a high probability of walking away?
Yes.
First, there’s no guarantee how long any of your hires stay, so not hiring someone because you think the candidate might leave doesn’t buy you anything. But even more importantly: how much could you take advantage of this candidate’s ideas? High initiative people/entrepreneurs have lots of ideas. Many of them could benefit you, your team, your organization.
Bring on the high initiative/potential entrepreneur candidates. Let’s see them rock!