Friday, November 13, 2015

Hiring And Experience

One of our boys is about to graduate with an EE degree, but he's having a tough time finding a job. He's got years of intern experience and is a leader in his senior project classes, but that's not translating into interviews, much less offers. Crazy!

He's stressed about the situation because many of the openings he's finding ask for "a minimum of 2-4 years of experience" at whatever it is they're hiring. Job seekers need to know that such experience levels are often just wishes, not hard requirements. When I hire, I make a similar wish list, but I have to take what's available. If there isn't anyone with N years of experience, then no matter what I asked for, I can't demand it. 

Having been in this game for a while and made some tremendous hires and a few poor ones, I've learned to hire the best available athlete. I hire for personality and drive, not experience or even knowledge. If you're eager, fun to have around and know Visual Basic, I can teach you PHP. If you're a mopey, boring complainer, I can't give you anything to change your personality. There's nothing worse than a cancer on the team and no amount of superstar skills can make up for it.

Not everyone hires like this, but I would argue that you don't want to take a job from those who don't. They're likely to have picked up some unpleasant toads along the way with whom you'll have to work. That won't be any fun at all.

7 comments:

tim eisele said...

One of the things that I've been told by people coming here to Michigan Tech to hire students, is that they are looking for flexibility. A willingness to relocate overseas for a few years is apparently a big plus, as is an interest in several different areas rather than just one narrow specialty. Granted, this is in chemical engineering, which is dominated by big multinational companies and covers everything from petrochemicals and metal extraction to pharmaceuticals and foods, but I expect that companies that hire EEs would be likely to feel the same way.

tom said...

I attended a talk at BarCampCHS last weekend that touched on some of this (see the in-house blog, KT).

The math professor giving the talk urged people to focus on arts, not science. You can learn calculus in college. If you don't start piano early, you're going to have problems. Likewise you can learn a programming language in a weekend once you understand programming.

Among his job thoughts was this: Once you pass the first screen, it's assumed that you know or can learn the technology. The next screen is whether you fit into the company's culture.

As for hiring... my recent retention rates suck. We're making our people employable by others....

IlĂ­on said...

Indeed. In our field, you don't want to go to work for stupid people ... of for those controlled by HR.

Mostly Nothing said...

I am not a manager but I have a lot of say with my boss in hiring. One of my best hires was a computer guy without really any Linux experience. We got him trained on the main application, and he's been a great addition. His one flaw is he's a Packer fan!

Hey Tim, all these years reading the blogs, I had no idea you were at Michigan Tech. My youngest son just started this fall there in Chem E. He's really loving it.

Dstarr said...

Sounds about typical. Hiring today is tough. Everybody in the world has a resume on the internet. As soon as a company indicates it has an opening, about 10 zillion resumes flood into HR. The HR people, who are profoundly ignorant of their company's business, or it's need for manpower, try to winnow down the flood of resumes to a few dozen, which they then dump on the hiring manager's desk. HR never listens to the hiring manager's needs, they know it all. For the job seeker, your chances of getting your resume thru the HR barrier are low.
My advice is to bypass the HR barrier entirely. Research the company, find the names of some managers on the internet, and give 'em a cold call. Get thru his secretary by saying the matter is personal and very urgent. Have a good elevator speech memorized. Most managers will give you a couple of minutes to make your pitch, and if they have an opening, they will give you the name and phone number of the right guy to call. Most manager's will figure an applicant with the stones to call him direct, is worth an interview.

tim eisele said...

Mostly Nothing: Hey, glad to hear it! If your son is in CM1000 this term, I'll be talking to them about mineral concentration and metal/chemical extraction after Thanksgiving break.

Mostly Nothing said...

Hi Tim, he's in the class. He says you've spoken once already to the class. He really likes it up there.