Searching through resumes and finding great people
This year I have had the pleasure of building a team and have reviewed more resumes / CVs than my entire career. I have been hiring the…
This year I have had the pleasure of building a team and have reviewed more resumes / CVs than my entire career. I have been hiring the mythical ‘agile coach’, but I imagine some of the observations could also apply to other roles.
The return on investment (ROI) in finding people that are a great fit for your team cannot be overstated. Any short cuts you make in hiring will only come back to haunt you. No one wins if you hire someone that isn’t a good fit. The best lesson I’ve learned is to treat hiring as professionally as you can, it must be your priority and you should not do it alone.
There’s a common anti-pattern where people assume that Agile coaches are supposed to come in and magically diagnose and fix everyone’s problems.
This puts a lot of pressure on getting the hiring right, however when looking at resumes in isolation, I struggle to differentiate one resume from another. They often follow a common formula or layout and in some cases are barraged with certificate badges (which I equate to their own personal Pokémon card collection, ‘got to catch them all’).
I much prefer to have a personal sense of who the candidate is, what they are doing and what they are passionate about.
Depending on the impression the resume makes, I may be curious to look at their LinkedIn profile and see who they are connected to the wider agile community. Whilst I don’t profess to be an agile guru in any sense, I have started to meet some amazing people over time and built some great connections. Through the power of social networks, the more people I meet and talk to, the higher the likelihood they will be connected to other people I know. This can be another hueristric if you have connections to the wider community and you want to tap into that network for additional insight.
Is LinkedIn the only way to have professional presence in the community, not. There are other ways to have a network such as a blog or via Twitter (dubious) or some other community. If you are applying for a role that is related to the agile community, I am typically wanting to understand what type of person you are and how you engage, contribute, and continue to learn.
Learning does not equate to more ‘agile’ certificates!
Our team is always keen to ensure we are challenging ourselves with biases. We try to not to make hiring decisions in isolation and if we aren’t sure we don’t proceed. We try to balance fit with the team and overall value add the person can bring to the mix. Will they make us better overall and can we learn from them and will they be open to learn from us.
Whilst experience and knowledge are important, we are more interested in ensuring that you are open to learning, open to challenges and keen to grow as a team rather than just for your own personal gains.
As a rule, we want to hire the people we can rather than hiring to fill a role and meet a planned date. We already have great people so we’d rather we find great people rather than just hitting a target. Outcomes over output is valid here too.
Drinking your own Champagne
We are always looking to challenge our own perspectives and not lazily find people that we get on with and then end up with a group of people who are all in agreement constantly. We crave that diversity of thought, equally we need to be able to work with and learn from each other. So being full of yourself, holding strong opinions and not being open to discussing and challenging yourself, you are likely to run into a brick wall quickly.
Equally people who are focused or aligned to a particular flavor of ‘agile’ are likely to be overly dogmatic and less open to pragmatism. This gets worse when you move above the team level and start looking at scaling frameworks. I am sensitive to people who have only done one thing e.g. all xyz framework and nothing else. Breadth and depth of learning are important but in ways of working being overly focused on any way is dangerous.
Ability and eagerness to learn and grow is as important as your existing experience. If you are not continuing to learn and educate yourself (in any capacity, books, courses, certificates, life experience etc.) then you are limiting yourself and what you can bring to the table.
Once you have found a great candidate, consider getting them to speak with key stakeholders and potential partners to see if there is a fit with them too. They won't be assessing the candidates on the competencies but bringing stakeholders into the mix allows for a level of partnership and buy-in that will strengthen the relationship. For an agile coach this is particularly important, they will have to be able to build rapport and influence people to change their ways.
Don’t just sit and wait
One other challenge we’ve faced and are still learning from is that the role you are advertising may not be known or making its way to people you want to hire. So, consider your own network, consider referrals and recommendations as they are a terrific way to broaden your reach. If people you know are taking the time to refer candidates, it is unlikely they will refer you to someone ‘bad’, that doesn’t mean they will be a fit, but the person should at least be someone worth talking to.
Another area to explore is meetups / communities in your hiring location, sending out signals to communities that can help your team / your organization build a name and presence. This is particularly important if the company isn’t known for a particular role in each location. We’ve learned this the hard way when looking for amazing people in Poland. They exist but they are not actively looking to join companies and certainly not large complex ones that don’t have the same culture as a startup.
It may be obvious, but it always pays to be nice and fair to people, even if there isn’t a fit it doesn’t cost you anything to be professional. Likewise, if a candidate doesn’t pan out, they could end up being a source of reference to you in the future. I know one case where this has paid off and created a great relationship between us!
Equally if you find great people but they aren't a fit for the role you are hiring for, then forward them onto another team who may benefit from your referral within your organization. We have found lots of roles for great people, even if they were not a fit for our roles, this costs nothing but is a effective way to find opportunities for great people for your company and not just your team!
I’m sure there’s many other tips and heuristics to consider when looking for great people. I find ensuring the wider team is involved is the most important one. What are your tips / suggestions for finding great people?