My review of Team Geek.....a shout out to Ben and Fitz

It’s been a little while since I’ve done a book review...this time it’s written by people I actually know..awesome.  Ben and Fitz wrote Team Geek as “a Software Developer’s Guide to Working Well with Others”.  What’s great about it, it’s a very good read for everyone...not just technical folks.

I’m not going to get into how awesome Ben and Fitz are....you should know that by now or just go watch one of the videos I’ve linked below.....you’ll get the idea...

Anyway, I’d highly recommend you buy the book (from the link below!) and with that here are a few thoughts/insights I drew from my read:

The Genius Myth - Great point here in the book about people wanting to find idols in the industry and worship them.  The believe that there are these mythical engineers (or coworkers) who can do superhuman things....not true, the Genius Myth.  These great people are great....NO doubt but they do amazing things working with a team.

There is no substitute for human experience - In the age of social media and video conferencing...we still need to interact as humans.  Working alone, in a silo might sound nice but really being on a team and interacting with others who make you better...that’s the stuff.

Humility, Respect, Trust - These are the three pillars of social skills.  Great pieces of advice here especially when you think about using these skills within your team, the organization and even more importantly the users.  Great advice.

Fail Fast, Learn, Iterate- This is probably my favorite piece of advice in the book.  Do I even need to get into any detail here?  It’s great advice and frankly finding companies that encourage and embrace this mentality are the kinds of places you want to work.

People are like plants - Love the image this creates...especially the image in the book.  People really are like plants thought when you think of it.  Each one requires different things to grow....attention, motivation, encouragement whatever... Your job as a lead or as a teammate is to identify what makes people “grow” and feed them until the bloom.  Simple stuff right?  um, right...

If you can’t take the path, make the path - Last insight I drew from the book....if you can’t take the path, make the path.  Hell yes.  I’ve tried to really work this way in my career and appreciate when folks can identify a problem and then hammer through a new solution.  In other words....get it done.

Ok, obviously this was a quick review...but this is a great read.  Very good advice for not only engineers but also for anyone working in a team environment.  Grab a copy here and if you ever get a chance to meet Ben and Fitz....make it happen, they are some of the best guys I’ve had the luxury of working with and you’ll learn a ton.

It's time for a recruiting Trafalgar

Ok, crazy busy week for me but I had this weird inspiration and wanted to share....so, hang on.  As you know, I’m a History dork.  I’ve got a degree in History and pretty much only read historical books....very little fiction.  This weeks inspiration comes from Lord Horatio Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar.  

If you aren’t familiar w/ Nelson or this battle, I’d highly recommend giving it a little study (I can even recommend a book in comments if you’d like!).  The moral of the story here is that Nelson won this amazing battle due to dramatically changing normally accepted tactics....and revolutionizing the art of battle.

For me...I’m feeling like it’s about time for a whole new take on looking for a job and hiring top talent.  A “Recruiting Trafalgar” if you will.  Here’s what I mean:

Nelson Bucked the Trends - At the time, opposing fleets would basically sail next to each other in parallel lines and blast each other to pieces.  Although this sounds manly and tough....it’s pretty dumb.  Rather than take his smaller force and face certain death...Nelson rethought the problem won via innovation.  If we are going to truly change the way people get hired we need to stop lining up in parallel lines and blasting away.  It’s time to think outside of the box, get nimble and build innovative solutions that work for you (or your organization).

Maximizing Fire for Maximum Results - To defeat the French and Spanish fleet, Nelson took his fleet and attacked them perpendicularly...thus allowing his fleet to maximize fire and devastate the enemy.  See below:

The analogy here is that if you’re looking for a job or trying to hire a bunch of folks...you HAVE to maximize fire and generate as much activity as you can.  The only way to “win” the battle is to focus your attention as much as you can and develop overwhelming activity.

Hindsight is 20/20 - Ok, last point on this and it’s a good one.  Hindsight is 20/20 in recruiting and history. Nelson died in the Battle of Trafalgar and became a national hero.  So, if you are on the edge and pushing the boundaries of hiring/recruiting/job search you may not even know it....but, history will look back on you.  Whether it’s a good new job, a great new team or amazing advice to a friend/colleague who’s looking around....it will be easy for you to see your success with the benefit of hindsight.

That’s it this week, my daughter put a copy of my favorite Nelson book in my laptop bag today and told me I’d need it for work....ironically, she was right.  I’m pretty sure in 1805, Lord Horatio Nelson had no idea he’d be inspiration for a recruiting blog in 2012.

Good luck out there this week.......and keep thinking outside the box.

Mumford Recruiting - Advice for your job search from Mumford and Sons

Ok, it had been a little while since I did one of my musical posts and this one will be a little different.  It’s a pretty new album and it’s decidedly NOT metal.  If you look on wikipedia Mumford and Sons are described as a “British Folk Rock Band”...whatever that means.   Regardless, they totally rock and I’d highly recommend if you are looking for something cool.  This post is dedicated to them and will hopefully share a few recruiting/job search advice from their album “Sigh No More”.

Love that will not betray you, dismay or enslave you, - Sigh No More

I’m not really sure the recruiting hook here but I love this line and this song.  I’m sure you could make some snarky joke about Corporate America or who companies will always dismay or enslave you but I’m trying to start this on a positive note.


And I'll find strength in pain
And I will change my ways
I'll know my name as it's called again - The Cave

This song pretty much rules, check the video here.  I really like this line for people who are having a hard time finding a job.  Interviewing sucks, and it’s very difficult.  The trick, is to take all these interviewing experiences good and bad...and get better.  Next time your name is called for an interview, be ready and kill it.

And my head told my heart
"Let love grow"
But my heart told my head
"This time no
This time no" - Winter Winds

Another quote that aligns perfectly with my recruiting thoughts..trust your heart.  Doesn’t matter if you are a hiring manager or a job seeker.  If something tells you “this is off” it probably is.  Now, I’m not sure you’re head should ever tell you to “let love grow” in a work setting but we’ll leave that to the HR folks....for now, trust your heart when looking at a new job.

It seems that all my bridges have been burned - Roll Away Your Stone

Have you burned bridges?  Not sure?  Think about it.  The second to last thing you want to do is burn bridges....the LAST thing you want to do is burn bridges and not realize it.  Take time every now and again to think about your networking and former coworkers and if you’ve burnt bridges try to repair them.  If you can’t repair them....that’s fine, just make sure you don’t ask them to be references!

Lead me to the truth and I will follow you with my whole life - White Blank Page

This quote makes me think of mentors and people I’ve looked up to in my career.  Mentors are hugely important.  A mentor is with you for life and if you are a mentor to someone...be there for them when they need you.

I really fucked it up this time - Little Lion Man

Little Lion Man is probably Mumford and Sons most popular song...it’s awesome.  The recruiting link?  Well, we all f it up sometimes....it’s inevitable.  So, when you f it up....don’t avoid it.  Embrace the experience and grow from it.

And you have your choices
And these are what make man great
His ladder to the stars - Timshel

I REALLY like this quote for people looking to do great things.  There are times in your career when you have choices and those choices will make your career.  Some of them are HUGE and some might not be as big.  But the fact is, the choices you make in your career will be your ladder to the stars.  Are you up for the challenge?

My weakness I feel I must finally show - Awake my soul

If you honestly, truly want to grow as an employee...you have to expose your weaknesses and grow.  In order to become great, you have to focus on those things and turn them into strengths. Find a mentor, talk to them about your weaknesses and grow.

That’s it for this one, I’m on the road this week for work so I’ll try to post again but it might be a busy week.  Good luck out there this week, more soon.

Building a better recruiting metric?

How do you measure a good recruiter? Metrics of course, but really are the metrics we use that accurate in determaining how your recruiting team actually perfoming? Probably not, most of the metrics I've seen or talked to people about tend to be things like : Time to fill, Cost per hire, Acceptance Rate, Number of hires, Source, etc etc. Some of these are GREAT metrics but can't we do better? I feel like these metrics have been around forever with very little innovation or change.

So, let's dig a little deeper and see if we can find a few better metrics based on the Sabermetrics that they use in baseball. Wikipedia says the following:

"Sabermetricians frequently call into question traditional measures of baseball skill. For instance, batting average is generally considered by them to be a statistic of limited usefulness because it turns out to be a poor predictor of a team's ability to score runs.^[2] A more typical sabermetric reasoning would say that runs win ballgames, and that therefore a good measure of a player's worth is his ability to help his team score more runs than the opposing team. In particular, they tend to emphasize on base percentage."

Ok, so let's think about "recruiting skill" by questioning some traditional recruiting statistics. Let's start with number of hires. You have two recruiters, Recruiter A hires 10 engineers while Recruiter B hires 7 over the same time period. Traditional recruiting metrics would say Recruiter A is the stronger performer. Now, in some ways, number of hires is the most important metric however, if dig deeper there may be more to the story.

If we cross-reference the performance rating of each hire, there may be a different picture. Assuming we rate employees on a 1-5 scale, the average performance of Recruiter A's hires is 3.5 while Recruiter B's folks perform at an average rating of 4.5. You metrics would know look like this:

	Number of Hires	Average Performance Score
Recruiter A	10	3.5
Recruiter B	7	4.5

Now multiply the average score by the number of hires we come up with a statistic we'll call "Total Performance Score", which isl basically measuring not only how many hires your recruiter had, but what kind of a performance impact those hires actually had. The metrics would now be:

	Number of Hires	Average Performance Score	Total Performance Score
Recruiter A	10	3.5	35.0
Recruiter B	7	4.5	31.5

Does these metrics tell you anything? Well yes, Recruiter A hires more people but Recruiter B hires better performers. But there is more here. Recruiter A's scored a 35 out of a possible score of 50 while Recruiter B scored a 31.5 our of 35. So the performance difference is even more profound. Doing the math here we come up with a statistic we'll call "Hire Impact Ratio".

	Number of Hires	Average Performance Score	Total Performance Score	Hire Impact Ratio
Recruiter A	10	3.5	35.0	.70
Recruiter B	7	4.5	31.5	.90

This "Hire Impact Ratio" shows us that Recruiter B hires candidates who have a much bigger impact within the company than Recruiter A. Does this matter? Sure it does! The goal of every recruiting organization is to hire the best people possible! I'm not saying this metric above is the greatest thing ever, but I am sure that we as recruiters can and should do a better job of finding ways to measure our performance than the same old metrics of the past! Thoughts?