* Welcome Sean Landis

[Henry Wong]

This week, we're delighted to have Sean Landis helping to answer questions about the new book Agile Hiring.

The promotion starts Tuesday, April 26th 2011 and will end on Friday, April 29th 2011.

We'll be selecting four random posters in this forum to win a free copy of the book provided by the publisher, Artima Inc.

Please see the Book Promotion page to ensure your best chances at winning!

Posts in this welcome thread are not eligible for the drawing.

[Andrew Monkhouse]

Welcome Sean!

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Welcome Sean!

[sandeep lokhande]

Welcome Sean Landis

[Howard Rosenblum]

Hi Sean,

Can your techniques be applied to hiring for a startup? We have been experiencing difficulty finding people who are willing to get low pay for a potential huge upside.

Thank You
Howard

[Gagan Grover]

How can I improve the hiring process in my organization by using Agile Hiring?

[Jan de Boer]

Jan de Boer, your post has been moved to a new topic

[Sean Landis]

Howard Rosenblum wrote:Hi Sean,

Can your techniques be applied to hiring for a startup? We have been experiencing difficulty finding people who are willing to get low pay for a potential huge upside.

Thank You
Howard

Hi Howard,

My techniques work for any situation but my focus is on software developers and primarily the best ones. Way back when Netscape was a start up, they realized their best chance for success was to hire the top developers. They were creating something innovative and new; something beyond the ability if average developers. Even then, they realized the best developers couldn't easily be lured by options or other 'potential upsides.' Like most startups, they were in a race and didn't have a lot of time to build their team. They decided to pay top dollar and it worked.

Today, I think it is very hard to convince great developers to join for low pay. Your main hiring tool is your vision: if it is very compelling, it will be attractive. Candidates have to agree with you that there is a huge upside. If you are targeting people straight from college (in my opinion, not the people you want), they have to general disadvantage of not recognizing a good thing when they see it. So check your target and make sure it aligns well with your vision. There may be other incentives you can provide that offset low pay such as work environment, culture, flexible hours, the technologies, used, benefits, etc. Seasoned candidates know to look at the entire package.

Good luck!

[Campbell Ritchie]

Welcome to the Ranch Sean Landis.

Can I remind other people, they must post on threads other than this one if they are interested in winning the book

[Sean Landis]

Gagan Grover wrote:How can I improve the hiring process in my organization by using Agile Hiring?

Hi Gegan,

That's one of the questions the book answers, but it takes over 200 pages to do so :-)

Since that's such a broad question, how about you post a list of agile principles or techniques you are familiar with and I will try to relate them to hiring.

Sean

[Roman Burdakov]

Roman Burdakov your post has been moved to a new topic

[Vijitha Kumara]

Welcome Sean Landis!

[Bear Bibeault]

Please remember to ask questions in separate topics. All the of the questions asked in this topic are not eligible for the book drawing.

[Kalpesh Soni]

Welcome Sean!

[Andrew Monkhouse]

Lis Iswari,
Your post was moved to a new topic.

[Kandpal Mahesh]

Welcome Sean.