recruiting - observations from an outsider

To be honest?  I hate recruiting and try to get out of it any way I can.  Unfortunately, I’m really good at it which is why so many of my small companies are willing to pay my high hourly rate for this service.  Not being a certified HR recruiter I’ve amassed some harsh observations.  Harsh?  maybe because I’m jaded about the process, maybe I’m just becoming cynical, maybe the lack of formal training but here are some interesting things to consider when you are recruiting next:

Resumes.  Fact or fiction?  Really, isn’t this just a piece of marketing collateral?  We’re trying to “sell” ourselves and use all those power words (drove the initiative, delivered in three weeks, developed, created, maintained … action verbs ‘r’ us!) to reassure potential employers we’re the best.  We did it all.  Lately I’m starting to see resumes as just spam and I’m spending more time, and frankly more emphasis, on the cover letter.

Writers.  I hate to say it but I have a bias for people who write well.  If your cover letter is poorly written I’m going to pass, regardless of your stellar qualifications.  Why?  Because good, logical writing - the flow of an idea - is an incredibly good sign for how they think, communicate, make things and their point of view understood.  If you haven’t won me over in the written word, well, it is unlikely you will during the interview. One of my last recruiting jobs was for a Product Manager and each candidate had to write a market requirements document.  The managers looked at it for content - I looked at it from a writing/flow/point of view.  It really made a difference in the candidates we went forward with.

Assignments.  I am now becoming increasingly more adamant that finalists have to do some kind of assignment or test.  I’m finding that lately candidates can really talk a good story but when you test-drive them you find out they are not really as good as they are on paper.  At this stage I’m still just on skills assessment or assignments (nothing that takes longer than 4 - 6 hours in aggregate).  However, one of my colleagues goes further and insists on contracting for a mini-assignment if possible to see what a candidate is like.  Interesting way of getting to know them.

Experience.  My clients give me laundry lists of what kind of experience they are looking for but, really, at this juncture candidates should know what “software programmer” means.  I’ve been getting really cheeky in my job postings of late and have been including the following that seems to suit me just fine:

We could (and perhaps should) list a bunch of specific requirements, years of experience in particular languages and all the usual job posting type stuff but, really, we’re looking for people with the right spark of intelligence, personality, development experience and drive (and communicates and plays well with other humans).

Yes, some baseline level of experience is required but as you know most people master a role in 12-18 months and then start to look at what’s next in their career development.  I don’t really care how long they’ve been doing a role - just that they’ve been doing their job well.  And isn’t the above paragraph more accurate than “5 years experience in ….”?

Speaking of experience: my thoughts on formal education.  Almost every post I write includes a college degree, certification, or some other formal requirement for the position.  Really?  It seems a bit hypocritical as I am a CFO that doesn’t have an accounting degree.  Yup, it is definitely possible to find intelligent people who do their jobs exceptionally well that didn’t get a formal eduction (I have an undergrad in International Finance - I learned accounting at Sun Microsystems).  Again, I get it is an indicator as to the level of experience required but most CFO’s know, as do other roles, what level of accounting understanding is required to do their job well.

These are just a few things that I have observed.  Maybe the recruiting world is moving forward or maybe not.  But I feel it necessary to challenge the old school requirements and approach to recruiting so that we can find innovative talent to take us into the next decade.