Staff Hiring
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Hey guys, most folks I'm sure have been involved in hiring developers in some form or other. In your experience, through what medium are you generally most likely to find the best applicants? We've been asked to go a route that I'm not really comfortable with and am sure is going to provide plenty headache to sift through CV wise X| Recruitment Agencies Word of Mouth Poaching/Headhunting Associates Newspapers Online Job ads etc. and please substantiate why. My personal preference is either through agencies or headhunting, the one because they pre-screen a lot of the chancers and the other because generally I've found that the good ones get kept close by the companies they work for. PS. To all the fellow saffers don't forget to vote tomorrow! :thumbsup:
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Hey guys, most folks I'm sure have been involved in hiring developers in some form or other. In your experience, through what medium are you generally most likely to find the best applicants? We've been asked to go a route that I'm not really comfortable with and am sure is going to provide plenty headache to sift through CV wise X| Recruitment Agencies Word of Mouth Poaching/Headhunting Associates Newspapers Online Job ads etc. and please substantiate why. My personal preference is either through agencies or headhunting, the one because they pre-screen a lot of the chancers and the other because generally I've found that the good ones get kept close by the companies they work for. PS. To all the fellow saffers don't forget to vote tomorrow! :thumbsup:
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Lol, got a deadline so haven't been reading the news. ;P Thx.
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Hey guys, most folks I'm sure have been involved in hiring developers in some form or other. In your experience, through what medium are you generally most likely to find the best applicants? We've been asked to go a route that I'm not really comfortable with and am sure is going to provide plenty headache to sift through CV wise X| Recruitment Agencies Word of Mouth Poaching/Headhunting Associates Newspapers Online Job ads etc. and please substantiate why. My personal preference is either through agencies or headhunting, the one because they pre-screen a lot of the chancers and the other because generally I've found that the good ones get kept close by the companies they work for. PS. To all the fellow saffers don't forget to vote tomorrow! :thumbsup:
Obviously the best route is to poach someone because that generally means you already know all about them in the real world and they know all about you and what is expected of each other. If you want good applicants from agencies then you have to pay decent wages. Agencies exist to place people in jobs, not to provide companies with employees.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
modified on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 10:11 AM
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Hey guys, most folks I'm sure have been involved in hiring developers in some form or other. In your experience, through what medium are you generally most likely to find the best applicants? We've been asked to go a route that I'm not really comfortable with and am sure is going to provide plenty headache to sift through CV wise X| Recruitment Agencies Word of Mouth Poaching/Headhunting Associates Newspapers Online Job ads etc. and please substantiate why. My personal preference is either through agencies or headhunting, the one because they pre-screen a lot of the chancers and the other because generally I've found that the good ones get kept close by the companies they work for. PS. To all the fellow saffers don't forget to vote tomorrow! :thumbsup:
There is no such thing as a dependable source. I've been marketed several times as an expert in a language or technology simply because I mentioned it on my resume. I've actually been told by one "agency" to pad my resume with experience I didn't have. Post an ad in the paper or on Monster/Dice/whatever. It's DEFINITELY cheaper, and you still get a reasonable selection of seemingly qualified applicants, especially if you stress the requirements necessary to get the position. You should be able to tell during the interview who's got the chops to do the job. If they appear to answer all your questions to your satisfaction, you can further weed out the pretenders by setting up a laptop (with internet access) with some otherwise working code, and introduce a couple of bugs in it. Let them use the VS debugger to figure out what's wrong. Then ask them to add a feature that should be doable in a few minutes. If you really want to get fancy, ask them to implement a complete program doing stuff similar to what you need him/her to do. Give them 30 minutes to complete the program, and leave the room. There's no reason an interview has to be dull/boring for everyone involved.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997 -
Hey guys, most folks I'm sure have been involved in hiring developers in some form or other. In your experience, through what medium are you generally most likely to find the best applicants? We've been asked to go a route that I'm not really comfortable with and am sure is going to provide plenty headache to sift through CV wise X| Recruitment Agencies Word of Mouth Poaching/Headhunting Associates Newspapers Online Job ads etc. and please substantiate why. My personal preference is either through agencies or headhunting, the one because they pre-screen a lot of the chancers and the other because generally I've found that the good ones get kept close by the companies they work for. PS. To all the fellow saffers don't forget to vote tomorrow! :thumbsup:
Agency every time - but I like to develop a relationship with an agency - they get to know my likes and dislikes, and only put forward candidates they think I will like. I always go exclusively through a single agency (and get lower rates for that) The screening process pays for itself after a few recruits - of course if recruiting is rare, the payback may take longer - but when my boss insisted we went direct, guess who had to read through 64 CVs? After about a year, and one permie and two contractors through a single recruiter at an agency, we were only getting two or three applications through, at most, and I would probably have employed all of them. We never wasted time with people turning up, then not liking the sound of the role - the agency knew us well enough to put them off before they crossed our threshold. word of mouth can be fine - but I always take care to promise nothing, and still interview carefully - their pal might think they're a genius, but they need to prove it to me! Poaching can be OK if you know the person (and then it's word of mouth really!) I have had the experience where someone who was poached (not by me) got a little too big for their boots, so impressed were they by being singled out,
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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Hey guys, most folks I'm sure have been involved in hiring developers in some form or other. In your experience, through what medium are you generally most likely to find the best applicants? We've been asked to go a route that I'm not really comfortable with and am sure is going to provide plenty headache to sift through CV wise X| Recruitment Agencies Word of Mouth Poaching/Headhunting Associates Newspapers Online Job ads etc. and please substantiate why. My personal preference is either through agencies or headhunting, the one because they pre-screen a lot of the chancers and the other because generally I've found that the good ones get kept close by the companies they work for. PS. To all the fellow saffers don't forget to vote tomorrow! :thumbsup:
All of them. You never know who turns up. ;)
Dr D Evans "The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s" financialpost
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There is no such thing as a dependable source. I've been marketed several times as an expert in a language or technology simply because I mentioned it on my resume. I've actually been told by one "agency" to pad my resume with experience I didn't have. Post an ad in the paper or on Monster/Dice/whatever. It's DEFINITELY cheaper, and you still get a reasonable selection of seemingly qualified applicants, especially if you stress the requirements necessary to get the position. You should be able to tell during the interview who's got the chops to do the job. If they appear to answer all your questions to your satisfaction, you can further weed out the pretenders by setting up a laptop (with internet access) with some otherwise working code, and introduce a couple of bugs in it. Let them use the VS debugger to figure out what's wrong. Then ask them to add a feature that should be doable in a few minutes. If you really want to get fancy, ask them to implement a complete program doing stuff similar to what you need him/her to do. Give them 30 minutes to complete the program, and leave the room. There's no reason an interview has to be dull/boring for everyone involved.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997 -
Hey guys, most folks I'm sure have been involved in hiring developers in some form or other. In your experience, through what medium are you generally most likely to find the best applicants? We've been asked to go a route that I'm not really comfortable with and am sure is going to provide plenty headache to sift through CV wise X| Recruitment Agencies Word of Mouth Poaching/Headhunting Associates Newspapers Online Job ads etc. and please substantiate why. My personal preference is either through agencies or headhunting, the one because they pre-screen a lot of the chancers and the other because generally I've found that the good ones get kept close by the companies they work for. PS. To all the fellow saffers don't forget to vote tomorrow! :thumbsup:
Mario Luis wrote:
In your experience, through what medium are you generally most likely to find the best applicants?
Either hire someone you worked with and know them well or someone recommended by a person you trust. Everything else is a gamble.
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Agency every time - but I like to develop a relationship with an agency - they get to know my likes and dislikes, and only put forward candidates they think I will like. I always go exclusively through a single agency (and get lower rates for that) The screening process pays for itself after a few recruits - of course if recruiting is rare, the payback may take longer - but when my boss insisted we went direct, guess who had to read through 64 CVs? After about a year, and one permie and two contractors through a single recruiter at an agency, we were only getting two or three applications through, at most, and I would probably have employed all of them. We never wasted time with people turning up, then not liking the sound of the role - the agency knew us well enough to put them off before they crossed our threshold. word of mouth can be fine - but I always take care to promise nothing, and still interview carefully - their pal might think they're a genius, but they need to prove it to me! Poaching can be OK if you know the person (and then it's word of mouth really!) I have had the experience where someone who was poached (not by me) got a little too big for their boots, so impressed were they by being singled out,
MVVM# - See how I did MVVM my way ___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
_Maxxx_ wrote:
- but when my boss insisted we went direct, guess who had to read through 64 CVs?
My fear. Been down that road with a previous company. I actually enjoy the whole interview process as it's always very interesting to get someone to talk about their experience and how they applied their knowledge. This normally tells me quickly who knows what they are talking about and those who are just wind. The reason I separated poaching and word of mouth is I lean towards the old saying, "Don't mix family with business", I tend to apply this with friends or associates I know closely as it can easily ruin a friendship. Poaching is more not knowing the person and by word of mouth I meant friend or associate.
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Hey guys, most folks I'm sure have been involved in hiring developers in some form or other. In your experience, through what medium are you generally most likely to find the best applicants? We've been asked to go a route that I'm not really comfortable with and am sure is going to provide plenty headache to sift through CV wise X| Recruitment Agencies Word of Mouth Poaching/Headhunting Associates Newspapers Online Job ads etc. and please substantiate why. My personal preference is either through agencies or headhunting, the one because they pre-screen a lot of the chancers and the other because generally I've found that the good ones get kept close by the companies they work for. PS. To all the fellow saffers don't forget to vote tomorrow! :thumbsup:
Mario Luis wrote:
through what medium are you generally most likely to find the best applicants?
I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't, but I have to; Through the medium of interpretive dance. Through Derek Acorah[^]. And so on.
Every man can tell how many goats or sheep he possesses, but not how many friends.
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Better still, get the applicant to bring in some working code or project and ask them to demonstrate it.
Software Kinetics - The home of good software
I do that without being asked, but that doesn't illustrate my ability to debug nor research a coding technique that I may npot be familiar with. That's why I suggested giving them a company laptop and letting them "have at it".
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997 -
Hey guys, most folks I'm sure have been involved in hiring developers in some form or other. In your experience, through what medium are you generally most likely to find the best applicants? We've been asked to go a route that I'm not really comfortable with and am sure is going to provide plenty headache to sift through CV wise X| Recruitment Agencies Word of Mouth Poaching/Headhunting Associates Newspapers Online Job ads etc. and please substantiate why. My personal preference is either through agencies or headhunting, the one because they pre-screen a lot of the chancers and the other because generally I've found that the good ones get kept close by the companies they work for. PS. To all the fellow saffers don't forget to vote tomorrow! :thumbsup:
How are Recruitment Agencies in the list? 99% of recruiters: "Do you have X" where X is requirement for job "What is your rate?" if rate <= client pay - recruiter pay then submit The other 1% "What is your rate?" if rate <= client pay - recruiter pay then submit $33,000 dollars to prescreen a candidate is a lot of money. (Estimate based on $50/hr for candidate * 2000 hours with 33% recruiter mark-up (industry standard)) Now if your recruiters make a fixed, $5 per hour that is another story. Put an add in the newspaper with an email address. HotJobs aggegrates newspaper listings (as do others) and go through the résumés. Make a short-list. If you do not have the time or staff hire a consultant to review the short list and tech interview them for a shorter list.
Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost
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Hey guys, most folks I'm sure have been involved in hiring developers in some form or other. In your experience, through what medium are you generally most likely to find the best applicants? We've been asked to go a route that I'm not really comfortable with and am sure is going to provide plenty headache to sift through CV wise X| Recruitment Agencies Word of Mouth Poaching/Headhunting Associates Newspapers Online Job ads etc. and please substantiate why. My personal preference is either through agencies or headhunting, the one because they pre-screen a lot of the chancers and the other because generally I've found that the good ones get kept close by the companies they work for. PS. To all the fellow saffers don't forget to vote tomorrow! :thumbsup:
I actually hate agencies, they're just after the money and a lot of times, those recruiters don't even know what they're talking about. So they'll talk to people simply to get a large database of people whether qualified or not.
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Hey guys, most folks I'm sure have been involved in hiring developers in some form or other. In your experience, through what medium are you generally most likely to find the best applicants? We've been asked to go a route that I'm not really comfortable with and am sure is going to provide plenty headache to sift through CV wise X| Recruitment Agencies Word of Mouth Poaching/Headhunting Associates Newspapers Online Job ads etc. and please substantiate why. My personal preference is either through agencies or headhunting, the one because they pre-screen a lot of the chancers and the other because generally I've found that the good ones get kept close by the companies they work for. PS. To all the fellow saffers don't forget to vote tomorrow! :thumbsup:
Recomendation from staff, they don't want to loose their job by recomending a numpty. Then use a trusted agency.
Panic, Chaos, Destruction. My work here is done. or "Drink. Get drunk. Fall over." - P O'H OK, I will win to day or my name isn't Ethel Crudacre! - DD Ethel Crudacre Have a bit more patience with newbies. Of course some of them act dumb -- they're often *students*, for heaven's sake. -- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)
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I do that without being asked, but that doesn't illustrate my ability to debug nor research a coding technique that I may npot be familiar with. That's why I suggested giving them a company laptop and letting them "have at it".
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997One of our primary concerns is also the ability to deal with making a abstract concept into a working solution. A lot of folks are happy to work with a detailed spec sheet and purely code\develop from that but it's harder to find people that can engage stakeholders and transform their concepts into reality.
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One of our primary concerns is also the ability to deal with making a abstract concept into a working solution. A lot of folks are happy to work with a detailed spec sheet and purely code\develop from that but it's harder to find people that can engage stakeholders and transform their concepts into reality.
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Hey guys, most folks I'm sure have been involved in hiring developers in some form or other. In your experience, through what medium are you generally most likely to find the best applicants? We've been asked to go a route that I'm not really comfortable with and am sure is going to provide plenty headache to sift through CV wise X| Recruitment Agencies Word of Mouth Poaching/Headhunting Associates Newspapers Online Job ads etc. and please substantiate why. My personal preference is either through agencies or headhunting, the one because they pre-screen a lot of the chancers and the other because generally I've found that the good ones get kept close by the companies they work for. PS. To all the fellow saffers don't forget to vote tomorrow! :thumbsup:
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Hey guys, most folks I'm sure have been involved in hiring developers in some form or other. In your experience, through what medium are you generally most likely to find the best applicants? We've been asked to go a route that I'm not really comfortable with and am sure is going to provide plenty headache to sift through CV wise X| Recruitment Agencies Word of Mouth Poaching/Headhunting Associates Newspapers Online Job ads etc. and please substantiate why. My personal preference is either through agencies or headhunting, the one because they pre-screen a lot of the chancers and the other because generally I've found that the good ones get kept close by the companies they work for. PS. To all the fellow saffers don't forget to vote tomorrow! :thumbsup:
6 months ago, I found my current position via a recruiter. Yesterday the recruiter called and asked "Are you looking for a new position?" Me: "No, you guys just placed me in November" Recruiter: "Oh, well let me tell you about an opportunity in your industry." Me: "I think you are talking about the company I work for now, the same one you placed me at in November. So you are saying you want me to leave the position you placed me in, to interview for a position in the company you placed me it?" Recruiter: "Where do you work?"; Me: "XXXX" Recruiter: "You are correct. Sorry for taking your time." I went back to my desk and told my manager that I was going to resign and interview for the open position. He found it quite funny and gave the agency some shit for it.
Craigslist Troll: litaly@comcast.net "I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. " — Hunter S. Thompson
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Hey guys, most folks I'm sure have been involved in hiring developers in some form or other. In your experience, through what medium are you generally most likely to find the best applicants? We've been asked to go a route that I'm not really comfortable with and am sure is going to provide plenty headache to sift through CV wise X| Recruitment Agencies Word of Mouth Poaching/Headhunting Associates Newspapers Online Job ads etc. and please substantiate why. My personal preference is either through agencies or headhunting, the one because they pre-screen a lot of the chancers and the other because generally I've found that the good ones get kept close by the companies they work for. PS. To all the fellow saffers don't forget to vote tomorrow! :thumbsup:
