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06.18.07
The Lament Of A Hiring Manager
By Dan Morrill
Like most bosses, I have jobs that need to be filled. They are very specific in what we need, and what the qualified candidate will look like in terms of skills, both technical and in personal communication and team work.
We know what we want, we know what they need to do, what we need them to act like and we cannot fill them.
That means I am going to have to outsource them, and inherently makes me want to know where the folks I need are.
Essentially, we are looking not just for people who can actually do things, but we want to see their work as well or at least get a good idea of what they can do.
It is surprising that it is difficult to get people to whiteboard a code solution based on some premise on what we are looking to do.
The other difficulty is that we really need people who can work with clients, or work well within teams and with others.
That is turning into the more difficult part.
They may pass on the technology problem solving solution side, but for some reason just cannot either follow along with the team, or have to prove that they know all sorts of esoteric arcane material that has nothing to do with the project.
This is the difficulty in finding smart, creative people who are enthusiastic about what they do, have people skills and the whole rest of the many requirements that most hiring managers need.
I do not mind the 200 resumes that is quick work; I do not mind resumes that might not fit the current position, or the whole host of other things that come along.
I do not mind a whole lot of things in the longer run.
The realistic part is that the work needs to be done, and that means I am going to have to outsource the jobs. Send them on to someone else who has an in-house body of people who can do the work, or provide the people to do the work for me.
That is where inherently from the hiring manager perspective, the whole idea of outsourcing is an issue that I am currently dealing with, and wish that I did not have to.
While many people complain about outsourcing of jobs, and the lack of being able to find employment in the United States, I cannot find what I am looking for.
My last solution after having these jobs open is to outsource them. I cannot find what I am looking for, open jobs, hundreds of resumes later, and many interviews later; all the candidates have come up lacking in terms of social skills required, or technical skills required.
That is the problem.
I am failing in finding the right solution to the problem. It is not that Americans are somehow failing, it is that the quality of the candidates are lacking,
I need well rounded friendly people, who can really do good work. I would hire that person in a heart beat, I still need to find them.
Comments
About the Author:
Dan Morrill has been in the information security field for 18 years, both
civilian and military, and is currently working on his Doctor of Management.
Dan shares his insights on the important security issues of today through
his blog, Managing
Intellectual Property & IT Security, and is an active participant in the
ITtoolbox blogging community.
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