Hiring Tips

I’ve only hired a few times, but I just wanted to jot some notes about what worked for me in this process.

• Use a bug tracker or issue tracker to keep track of resumes, emails and interactions
• Respond to every person – there were some outsourcing firms that I didn’t respond to, but every other person got a response from me
• Use Craigslist.
• Use an email alias on your Craigslist post
• Use other mailing lists (rmiug-jobs, cu cs jobs, even local neighborhood lists)
• Ask your networks for candidates, but don’t expect too much of them
• Pre-screen with a set of email questions if possible.  Don’t ask candidates to do too much, but asking them to do some work will allow some to self select out
• When doing an interview, set the candidate up to succeed, by telling them what you are planning to ask them to do
• Set deadlines for yourself, and share them with the candidates
• Follow up with every candidate when you make a decision – I don’t think that it is fair to do otherwise
• If you can point job seekers at another position, do so.  I recently did this with a QA position – in my search, I discovered another firm that was looking to hire, so I pointed all the candidates that didn’t work for us to that firms job posting
• The web is full of sample job interview questions – use them!