On selling out…
I realize I am a couple weeks late on this but I’ve been very busy. I am in the process of moving (from Walla Walla, WA to Portland, OR for anyone interested). I am also in the process of setting up my new pad with the equipment necessary to telecommute to my current job. I’ve also been busy blogging on Vault, (my own, happy “sell out” place).
Unlike some folks, I simply don’t have a problem with selling out. If you are going to pay me to do what I like to do anyway and it is a win-win situation, great. Sounds like that’s what happened with Tiffany, a win-win situation arose with a recently pseudo-abandoned domain where she could monetize that. It’s what America is all about.
Just like the advertisement that will run at the bottom of this post. You can’t sell irony though…
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The recruit-o-sphere is full of honesty
Apparently JD of RecruitingBlogs.com has ticked off JG of Jobster/Recruiting.com because of an apparent non-compete agreement dispute and it has now been made public thanks to JD. Now I have made my views clear on non-compete agreements (short version: they’re stupid and not likely to be worth the paper they are written on), but if Jobster is indeed a WA corp, I imagine they are hoping that threat of litigation is going to give them a bargaining chip because that’s pretty much the only dog they have in this fight.
Recruiting.com is unreadable at this point and completely worthless as a community. I nixed them from my RSS feed a long time ago. Jobster has made all of the decisions that have created Rdc to become what it is today, and if RB.com has gained anything from it, it is thanks to those actions.
RecruitingBlogs.com is closer to what Rdc used to be: a decent community oriented around their user base. I am not one to say that corporate interests in community sites are bad but it is obvious that this one turned out to be a poor decision.
Find thousands of Bilingual jobs at LatPro.com.
Not Surprisingly, More Businesses Outsourcing HR
A recent article about small businesses outsourcing HR functions should come of no surprise to those in the HR field. With the legal complications involved in hiring, maintaining and ultimately terminanting employees taking its toll on small business operators, it is making much more sense to throw it to a PEO and let them take care of it.
These days, it is nearly insane for a small business to try to manage all of their own financials. They likely go the outsource route to outside accountants who take their scraped together financial documents, tell them what to do to maximize their deductions, and file their taxes for them. Now, HR is starting to go that way. Recruiting has been an indicator of that but now PEO’s are starting to go that way. The issue for HR departments everywhere?
How Would You Move Mount Fuji?
I read the book How Would You Move Mount Fuji? and I thought it was pretty interesting. It mainly focuses on how Microsoft interviews and why they ask the questions they do. It also gives you reasoning and logic behind some of the questions with right answers (or more correct answers).
I am always a fan of books about interviewing because they are usually so wrong. As I have never been interviewed (or interviewed for) Microsoft, I can’t tell you whether this book is good preparation for a Microsoft interview, I can tell you that it attempts to make a case for puzzle based questions.
Obviously puzzle based questions don’t work for everyone. Some positions do not require out of the box thinking. But for those in the company that do require that out of the box thinking, I could see it being useful (at least at a company the size of Microsoft). As the book points out though, this interview technique can leave people on the outside who can perform the job up to standards or even better than the person hired. And while leaving people on the table that could be hired might work for some positions at Microsoft, it might not work everywhere. As labor shortages increase, I wonder if this will change that technique some?
Bill Gates is going to be testifying in front of a Congressional committee this week on the need for more visas for highly skilled workers. One might wonder if the labor shortage could be averted by a simple change in interviewing technique?
American Idol Interviewing
Like many of you I am sure, I watched the first episode of American Idol. Of course, being the HR nerd I am, I began to think about if I could do this sort of interviewing style for jobs that I have open. I think the reason this is so attractive to people in my profession is that sometimes we die to give honest feedback to a candidate who needed just another step or two or someone who was way underqualified. I’d love to be able to say “that was awful” at the end of a bad interview. Of course, there are several reasons why judging singing is different than evaluating a candidate:
- Candidates typically have a skill set that you can’t spot within 10-15 seconds of them opening their mouths and then confirm over the next minute and dismiss them abruptly
- There are a few more consequences to choosing the wrong person or missing out on someone that was good because of your trigger fingered decisions
- As you’ve seen on the show, people are in denial about their deficiencies. Even under the most honest conditions, the people who are often the worst will never be convinced of this or improve
That being said, there are some things we can learn from American Idol that does apply to the interview process:
- Interviewers often have a hidden bias where they make snap decisions about a person before they even open their mouth. We aren’t interviewing pretty faces to be put on stage though so we must be aware of this bias.
- Cut the interview short if it isn’t going well. You’ve seen people being cutoff before and some legal guys will probably shake their head in disagreement. If you have the awareness to make the following judgment during the interview, pull the plug and both of you get on with your lives with less time wasted: If the interview went perfectly from this point forward, I would still not hire this person based on past questions. If the answer is yes, you can probably find something to fill the extra 15-45 minutes.
- Be honest with the candidate. As indicated above, many will not take your suggestions to heart but the few that you do connect with will often come back better equipped or refer people that they know because of your candor.
On second thought though, if you are going to be as honest as Simon Cowell, you may want to consult your legal department first. On the other hand, you probably shouldn’t tell your legal department about this post at all. If they hear I have suggested you subject your interviewees to a round of American Idol auditions, you may be “voted off” as they say in the biz.
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About
Your HR Guy is a Human Resources Generalist practicing in the field. But don't let that fool you, this isn't a boring blog. I seek relevance and humor in a place we will spend much of our lives. Everything from workplace issues, job seeking and terrible bosses. Read more...
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