{"id":1853,"date":"2014-08-17T22:29:06","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T04:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firmwarez.com\/?p=1853"},"modified":"2014-08-17T22:29:06","modified_gmt":"2014-08-18T04:29:06","slug":"hiring-technologists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firmwarez.com\/?p=1853","title":{"rendered":"Hiring Technologists?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not alone in saying that hiring is broken. It\u2019s broken across the board, but seems to be worst in the technology sector. Think I’m just a bitter, pissed off, negative hacker? Check this shit:
\n“Nine Ways Recruiting Is Broken, Broken, Broken”<\/a>
\n“Recruiting is Broken – But Your Job Search Isn’t”<\/a><\/p>\n

As a hiring manager, and a manager of technologists, I like to talk about relationships and the power of people. The success of any technical project is half about technical knowledge and skill, the other half is relationships. People are critical.<\/p>\n

Why? Bear with me through this exploration. Why is it that people and relationships are so critical in business? I mean, if developing a technical product is all about math and science and algorithmic stuff, why not just, um use an algorithm?<\/p>\n

The same thing is true in start-ups. If business was just math (as some accounting types like to think) then why can\u2019t we just develop an algorithm to make start-ups? Download the \u201cI want to be a tech millionaire app\u201d, press go, and wait for the algorithm to do its magic and you\u2019re now partying with the big boys. Hey, it\u2019s all math and stuff right? Shouldn\u2019t that work?<\/p>\n

Intuitively we all know that\u2019s nonsense. You can\u2019t reduce the complexities of developing a product or a process to a simple sequence of symbolic code. Again, intuitively we now this, but there\u2019s actually a bit of nifty math that explains why, and it\u2019s some of my personal favorite. Godel\u2019s incompleteness theorem states that \u201call consistent symbolic formulations of number theory contain undecidable propositions\u201d. A mathematical proof (science bitches) that says \u201cyou can\u2019t know everything\u201d. It also says that a symbolic system can either be complete and inconsistent (that is explains\/handles everything but with internal disagreement) or consistent and complete. Think reducing everything to an algorithm is making it in to a \u201csymbolic formulation of number theory\u201d? Oh yeah.<\/p>\n

I like to explain it like this: machines (mechanical or electronic) can be reduced to \u201csymbolic formulations\u201d. Machines per Godel don\u2019t handle paradoxes. Put your transmission in to reverse at 80 MPH and bad things happen. <\/p>\n

There is only one machine that can handle paradox. Oddly the best of them seem to thrive on paradox. That\u2019s the wetware between your ears. So a few paragraphs into math and some personal philosophy and now I\u2019m ready to talk about hiring techies.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I said \u201cintuitively we all know that\u2019s nonsense\u201d. The nonsense being reducing complex business processes in to mindless algorithms. Well, apparently we all intuitively know this is nonsense except for HR managers and their personnel. Here the complexity of finding a paradoxical person to fit a role that cannot be completely defined is reduced to buzzwords, years of experience with certain titles (wow, talk about a very limited symbolic system). It\u2019s borderline insanity.<\/p>\n

Well, you need to hire techies and other talented, yet paradox laden creators. How do? How to find the paradox puzzle piece? That is the talent that you really need to make business things happen, not to fill a final step in some simplistic shadow of a process?<\/p>\n

My suggestion to HR personnel and hiring managers (I was VP of engineering for a contract design house, I\u2019ve got some experience at being a hiring manager) is to explore these:<\/p>\n

1)\tTake risks. Check out this article hire someone with no experience <\/a>.
\n2)\tSimplify your intake process. Taleo sucks donkey balls. True talent isn\u2019t going to wade through crap to be your servant. One of the best versions of this I\u2019ve seen in a while comes from Fizzmint<\/a> in their openings. Each asks for 1) examples of your work (screenshots for graphics folks, github account for developers) and 2) a two line bio. This is how you do it.
\n3)\tPay attention to your network. If someone you know and trust says \u201cyou should talk to this guy\u201d, do it. Every time I have I\u2019ve been happy with the results; every time I didn\u2019t I regretted it. I applied to a Director of IT position in a Utah resort Park like City, had a well respected network friend even suggest me to their HR director (\u201cno fee!\u201d), and got the \u201cwe have a pool of talented applicants and are making our final decisions and will contact you if we have an appropriate opening\u201d corporate lie. Two months later their listing the position as open again. Funny that someone who can make it that far up in HR is afraid to talk to someone like me \u2013 I\u2019ve been a director of engineering and VP of engineering. I\u2019ve managed million dollar projects involving military prime contractors; I\u2019ve managed technologists from programmers to developers to engineers (hardware, mechanical, optical). Since I\u2019ve never held an \u201cIT\u201d manager title I guess their simple search algorithm thinks I\u2019m not qualified to manager their projects or personnel? They never even talked to me. Even more funny that they are now searching again. How\u2019s that risk mitigation going for you?
\n4)\tExplore alternative recruiting presences. Cons, forums, makerspaces. Any place where you can get to know your target talent in their environment. Just don\u2019t be an asshat about it; these places aren\u2019t trade shows. Maybe even (gasp!) hire some people in to HR that know what the fuck tech is and how to talk to technologists.
\n5)\tPut your money where your mouth is. I tried for a while to get inside a way cool \u201cwe\u2019re so super edgy\u201d well known Cranial Bonbon firm. Their HR is a bogged down, algorithmic impenetrable fortress. If you want to claim to be edgy and cool and progressive, BE edgy and cool and progressive, including in your hiring methods. Hey, I\u2019m still working on the networking backdoor thing there, but it\u2019s a challenge.
\n6)\tCut the crap. I remember back in the 90s seeing a job advert looking for a senior sysop with \u201c15 years of Linux experience\u201d. Um yeah. Stop making people lie to get your attention.
\n7)\tDon\u2019t be an asshat. Seriously. If you\u2019re a recruiter and go after someone for a position and they don\u2019t get it, let them know. If I ever get out of the hole I\u2019m in and get back to being a hiring manager, I will politely say \u201cfuck you\u201d to any headhunter that calls me. You\u2019ve never helped me find people; you\u2019ve never helped me find work.<\/p>\n

To counter some arguments that are spooling up in some reader\u2019s minds already. \u201cHiring should be about risk mitigation, not creating risk!\u201d. Bullshit. Hiring true talent, rockstars everyone likes to say, is about looking at the risk\/reward spectrum. Want real talent? Take risks. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut time! How do I pare down the millions of applicants I get if I follow Fizzmint\u2019s<\/a> two step approach? I NEED Taleo to help filter!\u201d Again, bullshit. If this, then that. If I like the two line bio and examples and a trusted friend says \u201ctalk to this person\u201d, or one of my people know her from visiting a con or local makerspace, then jump. Can any HR professional honestly with a straight face tell me the Taleo way is better?<\/p>\n

Stop trying to reduce a paradoxical complex relationship into a moronic algorithm. Hiring true talent is about understanding what true talent looks like, and taking the risks to get to know that talent, even if the \u201cright\u201d buzzwords are missing from their resumes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not alone in saying that hiring is broken. It\u2019s broken across the board, but seems to be worst in the technology sector. Think I’m just a bitter, pissed off, negative hacker? Check this shit: “Nine Ways Recruiting Is Broken, Broken, Broken” “Recruiting is Broken – But Your Job Search Isn’t” As a hiring manager, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firmwarez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firmwarez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firmwarez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firmwarez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firmwarez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1853"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.firmwarez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1857,"href":"http:\/\/www.firmwarez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1853\/revisions\/1857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firmwarez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firmwarez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firmwarez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}