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Hiring well is hard

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Re: Hiring well is hard

#11

Post by chrisbennet »

dbecker wrote: post #10

95% of companies want to hire exclusively from the most talented 5% of the labor pool. It's understandable, but we shouldn't be surprised that not everyone can succeed at that.

I agree that a large percentage of companies say they want to hire from the top 5%. However, from what I've seen, their HR departments seem hell bent on eliminating anyone exceptional.

They want a bargain (ask them if they also expect to pay in the top 5 percentile), a college degree and experience with exactly the technology they have now.

Re: Hiring well is hard

#12

Post by nephronim »

Robin_Message wrote: post #6

The problem the quoted blog post was having was trying to hire a unicorn ( http://www.designstaff.org/articles/hiring-a-designer-2011-1... ) – they want expert Javascript skills and design skills. They don't tend to happen in the same person, and so command a high price.

Actually we weren't looking for a unicorn since we have a designer (me actually) we were looking for a frontend developer which actually broadened out to a developer.

Re: Hiring well is hard

#13

Post by YousefED »

DirtyMonkey wrote: post #5

I read this as “Hiring is well 'ard” and thought Catherine Tate had found HN. I started looking for my first hire a few months ago, and it hasn't been easy. But in that time I've come across plenty of people that don't have the skills or experience I require… they do however have a lot of motivation. I'm currently helping three people learn the fundamentals of web development, and every day I'm surprised at how fast…

Interesting, what was the base level experience of the three people you're training?

I'm currently looking for a (mainly frontend) webdeveloper, and even finding an intern proves to be quite difficult so far.

Re: Hiring well is hard

#14

Post by DirtyMonkey »

YousefED wrote: post #13
DirtyMonkey wrote: post #5

I read this as “Hiring is well 'ard” and thought Catherine Tate had found HN. I started looking for my first hire a few months ago, and it hasn't been easy. But in that time I've come across plenty of people that don't have the skills or experience I require… they do however have a lot of motivation. I'm currently helping three people learn the fundamentals of web development, and every day I'm surprised at how fast…

Interesting, what was the base level experience of the three people you're training? I'm currently looking for a (mainly frontend) webdeveloper, and even finding an intern proves to be quite difficult so far.

The first guy was quite ‘techy’ to begin with and had dabbled in web development beforehand (PHP). The other two had absolutely no experience, surprisingly (for me) they have picked up things much faster – maybe because they have no prior notions or assumptions about how it all works but I'm not sure. They continuously mention how they can't believe how simple a lot of things are. Whereas the first guy seems to have already formed opinions about how difficult something is before actually trying it. He also procrastinates quite a bit (I believe it's because he thinks things are harder/bigger than they really are) – the challenge with him has been to break his misconceptions (“Git is difficult”, “The command line shouldn't be used” etc.) and to just get on with it.

Oh and a bit off topic, but just to mention that one of the other ‘guys’ is a girl… and after a few months of seeing her code, I think every team should be comprised of as many women as there are men (and be more diverse in general). It might just be her, but she approaches some problems in a completely different way to the rest of the team and her perspective has saved us from banging our heads against the wall many times. She also notices things that the rest of us are oblivious to. One day I'll get around to writing a blog post about it, haha.

In short, I would love to have the resources and time to train more people up from scratch – I never considered it before, it's all been positive so far. But, for most of the heavy lifting I'm still relying on either myself or freelancers. As for finding interns, I just asked around friends and family… it turns out there's a _lot_ of people that have thought about web development at some point but don't have a clue where to start – for some reason they thought they had to be good at maths or art.

Edit: just to clarify, they aren't interns… at the moment it's sort of informal class. We have a project that we work on over weekends (and a little bit during the week) . At the rate they're going, I would hire them in 6 or so months though.

Re: Hiring well is hard

#15

Post by Robin_Message »

nephronim wrote: post #12
Robin_Message wrote: post #6

The problem the quoted blog post was having was trying to hire a unicorn ( http://www.designstaff.org/articles/hiring-a-designer-2011-1... ) – they want expert Javascript skills and design skills. They don't tend to happen in the same person, and so command a high price.

Actually we weren't looking for a unicorn since we have a designer (me actually) we were looking for a frontend developer which actually broadened out to a developer.

Fair enough, in which case, perhaps the problem was your job ad sounded like you wanted a unicorn when in fact you didn't.

Looking at the job ad on your site, you ask for three attributes:

    Ability to communicate effectively, self motivated, flexible and works well under deadlines.
Self-starter, entrepreneurial or freelancing type person who is going into an incomplete team and will need to deliver a lot to satisfy.

    Advanced knowledge in HTML, CSS and Javascript with in-depth knowledge of DOM
    3rd Party API Integration ( Twitter, Facebook , Maps, etc.)
    Experience with jQuery
    SVN and QA tools.
Advanced development chops.

    Well-versed in design and concept development
    Advanced knowledge of responsive design for mobile
    Knowledge of tools /apps such as Adobe Creative Suite
Understanding and advanced knowledge of design, including using tools most front-end developers do not ever touch.

Not trying to be rude here, but it seems to me your job ad was probably asking too much in one person. I've been a full-stack developer for ~10 years, computer science PhD, work with a designer at my current startup, and I wouldn't have felt qualified. Maybe I'm misreading it, but maybe that's why you didn't get the applicants you wanted?

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