There’s an old adage in relationships: are you looking for the right person or are you looking for a person right now. I’m not here to give dating advice, but I think that the basic principals could apply to hiring as well. And given that I’m currently looking to grow my team by two (I’m looking for a Drupal / PHP / Back End developer and a Technical Architect) this line of thinking is very much on my mind right now.
Soft Skills
At Acquia, my team is entirely customer facing. Even the developers (who aren’t directly responsible for running customer interactions) spend at least a few hours a week on calls with our customers. That means when we hire, we have to consider that almost immediately, whoever we hire will be put in front of customers. So then, let’s consider our first scenario:
Candidate one has a slight edge on the technical side, but struggles with communication
Candidate two has a slight edge on communication, but is still proficient technically
All other things being equal, I would probably opt for the second candidate. At a certain point with technology, everyone has more to learn, no one will know everything. It is much easier for me to teach someone a technology that they don’t know (say, for instance, coding standards) than it is for me to teach them how to facilitate a meeting or work with a difficult customer.
Background
If you’re new to my blog and/or you don’t know me, my educational background isn’t in computers. Oh sure, I have 15+ years in web architecture and development, but my degrees are in English and Design. So, when I look at someone’s background, I’m always really keen to see what they have done with themselves. Let’s consider a second scenario:
Candidate one studied computer science and has spent their entire career working with the same coding language(s)
Candidate two started in another discipline and retrained
This one is not so cut and dry ad scenario one. I won’t necessarily pick candidate two only because of their background (because, invariably they will be less technically proficient than candidate one). Candidate two however should be very carefully considered because if they are good in the domain that they have retrained into, that means they probably have a really significant drive to learn, are self-motivated, and can succeed and think outside the box.
Sure, I’ve had some bad experiences in this regard. But I can also say some of the most capable and talented people I’ve worked with were not originally the most qualified for a position. But they worked their asses off to grow into the opportunity.
So, TLDR don’t get so focused on experience and time that you overlook some other aspects of a prime candidate.
Diversity
As a cis white man in a leadership position, I definitely recognize (and realize) my privilege. I’ve worked hard in the decade plus that I’ve been making hiring decisions to build teams that aren’t filled with people that look just like me.
One of the challenges with diversity in an open source community is that having time, energy, and effort to contribute to an open source project is itself a privilege. Not all jobs allow contribution. Not all skills lend themselves to equal contribution. Not all people can afford to spend hours a week contributing to something that they aren’t going to get paid for.
That doesn’t mean that the Drupal community isn’t diverse (it absolutely is). It’s also getting more diverse, as the Diversity and Inclusion initiative continues to advance and grow in the community. I just want to call out these factors to make sure they are on your mind. Because they weren’t on mine, for a long time.
Teams with diverse members make better products for more people. The dearth of diverse teams in tech, and in Drupal in particular, signals a culture where people of many different identities and backgrounds do not feel included in participating. By deliberately recruiting teams from spaces where people of diverse backgrounds collaborate, the DDI Contrib team is better positioned to have diversity in mind from the outset.
Candidate one has a particular set of skills and is a white man in scenario one
Candidate two has the exact same skills and is a black woman
Have you built a culture and environment on your team and at your workplace where, all things being equal, that second candidate would be given the same preference and treatment? I hope so!
Playing the Long Game
There are so many things we could talk about above and beyond these three examples. The crux of this article though is that if you are short sided in your hiring, you may well get a good candidate. You may well get a candidate who can do the job and who is impressive in all the right ways. You may also get someone who hops jobs every couple of years and/or is not the right fit for your team.
Playing the long game and remembering that all employees need opportunities for growth and training and that team fit and alignment with the culture of the team is often more important than the initial skill. This comes back to my initial linkage to the dating world. Wait for the right candidate, even if you need to fill a job right now!
Photo by Christina Morillo from StockSnap
Related Content
Digging into the process of hiring the right person for your team (which isn’t necessarily the first person who walks through your door).