Comments for Hiring Technical People

Comment on Stupid Recruiter Tricks by Peter Lawson

Peter Lawson — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:05:28 +0000

Well said Bubba.

In todays world there does seem to be an over abundance of self-approving bloggers with too much time on their hands.

Not quite sure what the point of this blog entry is but the first case is clearly as you said a bad connection and certainly worthy of reprieve. I mean come on! I know from personal experience with my carrier that they are far from reliable at any time so I would be scared to have Johanna on the phone as I may also be TSTL (too stupid to live!!)

In the second case I think you have nailed it.

Surely there are better and more interesting things to be blogging about? Strikes me though that this blog might be guilty of being for want of a better expression “TSTL…(too stupid to Last)”

The depression clearly hasn’t killed off poor blogging…

Comment on How Many Jobs? by Arnold Strong

Arnold Strong — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 02:02:47 +0000

I worked for Dell for over five years and it was one hell of a great time until their recent cost-cutting was implemented some this year…I quit.

Comment on What’s a Year of Experience? by Developer Resolutions for 2010 | Web Development News

Developer Resolutions for 2010 | Web Development News — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:25:12 +0000

[...] been working continuously for a decade, but they’ve not grown at all. In effect, they’ve repeated the same year (or month, even) of experience over and over. Make a commitment that this year will be [...]

Comment on Stupid Recruiter Tricks by Bubba

Bubba — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:14:20 +0000

How are these things tricks? The first just sounds like a poor connection. It’s not as if using a VOIP or a cell phone for communication is uncommon. The second is just ignorance of what velocity means in the context of agile development. If one is too stupid to live because of a lack of understanding of agile development then we’d have 90% of all managers, developers, and recruiters drop dead.

Comment on Stupid Recruiter Tricks by Thierry Thelliez

Thierry Thelliez — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:10:48 +0000

Your first trick made me laugh and reminded me an interview I got a while go for a large company. They had me travel in one side of the country but the manager was on the other side (error #1). Then they decided to set up a video conference call. That took one hour and two technicians to setup. The audio quality was as bad as what you described (error#2). Even worse, the position appeared to be for a project that did not exist (error #3).

Comment on Authenticity Works for Interviews by Brooks Moses

Brooks Moses — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:52:10 +0000

Eugene, I completely agree with you — but I think you’ve missed David’s point.

What David is talking about is not pretending — it’s about showing what’s genuinely there already but might be hidden. To talk a clearer example, here’s a parallel sort of situation with code reviews. I review my coworker’s code, and it’s generally excellent but has some bugs. My natural focus is to assume he knows it’s generally good, and write a report saying, “It’s got these three bugs.” What he hears may very well be that I think the code is bad because I didn’t say anything good about it — because I didn’t realize that needed to be said. If I use a reminder to say something good in my code reviews, that’s not a failure to be genuine. I said this code was generally excellent, and I believe that. So this is just a reminder to make sure I communicate that genuine opinion.

Similar things come up in display of emotions, too, though they’re can be less easy to describe. I’ve certainly had situations where I knew I wasn’t conveying an emotion that I genuinely had, and made efforts to be more visible about it — and what happened was better and more authentic communication, just as in the code-review example.

Comment on Authenticity Works for Interviews by Dan Kligerman

Dan Kligerman — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:52:15 +0000

I agree completely–if you can’t be authentic automatically, you’re not in the right situation to begin with. I think the other side to this coin is enthusiasm: so many people come across as less than excited about the position in question. Sometimes, this is overcompensating for nerves, but it may also be a sign that the job really isn’t for you. After all, if it’s something you really, really want, you should be automatically pumped up, not to mention authentic.

Comment on Authenticity Works for Interviews by Eugene Nizker

Eugene Nizker — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:54:39 +0000

to David A.

David,

We in IT deal with pretty smart people. Pretending is not going to work for more than 10 secs (if that). To me, i’d rather see genuine behaviour (whatever it is) than vain attempts to show a feeling that a person doesn’t have. I lose trust very quickly if i see this. Everyone does, i believe.

So, to me “practicing authenticity” sounds stupid because we should not “practice”, we should “be” what we are. This helps build trust, which is absolutely necessary for having a valuable discussion during interview.

My 2c.

Truly,
Eugene Nizker

Comment on 10 More Ways to Bomb an Interview by Maya

Maya — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:35:55 +0000

I went to this interview today…after waiting for 30 mins, the receptionist told me if could come back the next day. As it turned out the interviewer was off-site. Should I attend the interview?

Comment on Authenticity Works for Interviews by David A

David A — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:06:43 +0000

However, mare introvert folks people might not show their thoughts and feelings, which can mislead their audience or interviewer into thinking that they don’t care. They may need to make more effort to project themself – which takes practice.

It’s like taking your driving test – it’s not enough to check the mirror – the examiner has to see you check the mirror.