Hiring Technical People

Ask Why

So you didn’t get the promotion. Before you look for a new job, ask why. It’s possible you’re missing something critical for that role.

Many years ago, I was working as a “senior member of the technical staff.” I was a tester, had coordinated beta tests, much of the testing work for the last couple of releases, and was working as the tester-project-manager and helping the project manager realize what her job was. My boss left the company. I was “obviously” the next one in line for his job. I didn’t get the job. When I asked why not, I was told “You’re too valuable where you are.”

That’s a non-answer. But I did talk to my new boss, and told her I wanted to know what I needed to learn to get the promotion. She smiled and said, “people skills.” Ok. Clearly not my strengths, but I figured I could learn. I told her I wanted her to teach me. She agreed.

I put away my resume and stayed at the company another 4 years. I learned how to be a great manager. I learned how to be a great program manager. I learned how to do strategic planning, both the stupid way and ways that made sense. I doubt I would have learned how to do any of those skills that quickly without my new boss’ coaching and mentorship.

Managers, telling people they’re “not ready” or “too valuable” is a cop-out. Provide authentic feedback, offer to teach/coach/mentor, and you will have a loyal employee who will amaze you.

I stayed because I asked why and because I learned what I needed to learn. If you’re frustrated with your job, maybe it’s time to ask why, before you go look for a new one. Ask. What can you lose?

4 comments September 10th, 2008

Try Before You Buy: A More Agile Approach to Hiring

In Laurent’s Hiring and Testing post, he wondered why we spend so much time in the up-front stages of hiring. Why not use the probation period that seems to be the law in France, and is part of many companies’ stated HR procedures?A bunch of reasons: as managers, we need to give substantive and useful feedback during probation; many professional people are uncomfortable with the notion of being on probation, and you still have to invest the time and money on interviews and reference checks (although you might be able to spend a little less). I’ll address each of these issues briefly.

1. How many of you are comfortable with giving substantive and useful feedback? I suspect that you haven’t been trained on how to provide feedback, and if you haven’t, it’s dang hard. Esther and I have developed our Five Steps to Effective Feedback, see Collaboration and Teamwork for some of the content.
2. Probation means testing of a person’s fitness for work, but too often we think of it as something we do after we’ve made a mistake.
3. It’s hard to take an agile approach to hiring if firing is time-consuming and difficult. If firing is difficult, then you still have to define the job and interview carefully, audition, and check references. If you don’t, you could be stuck with someone who’s not working well for an extremely long time.

Probation is a good idea, and has only been pro forma for many companies. The necessary preconditions are the hiring manager’s ability to give useful feedback and the ability to fire easily.

Labels: audition, feedback

Add comment June 23rd, 2003