Welcome Johanna Rothman!

[Dirk Schreckmann]

This week, we're delighted to have Johanna Rothman amongst us, helping to answer questions in the Jobs Discussion forum.

We'll be selecting four random posters in this forum to win a free copy of Johanna's book, Hiring The Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets & Science of Hiring Technical People, provided by the publisher, Dorset House Publishing.

Welcome Johanna!

For more information on this and future book promotions, visit http://www.javaranch.com/bookpromo.jsp

[Naina Si]

Hi Johanna,

I really appreciate your time with us. Is there anyway we can just see the Table of contents of your book online?

[Homer Phillips]

Hi Johanna,

What qualifies you to write this work?

How do you get feedback on the efficacy of your ideas?

[Linda Pan]

Welcome Johanna. Isn't hiring techies also partially trying to hire someone that will fit the organization, too? I haven't read the book. Sometimes companies will hire based not how good a techie is. Probably not relevant ... but for example, Trump's show The Apprentice is looking for someone with good leadership qualities but also, a good fit with their organization. A good fit, meaning, a personality fit.
[ February 15, 2005: Message edited by: Linda Pan ]

[Kishore Dandu]

Johanna,

I have observed a peculiar hiring practise.

Some companies intentionally hire technical guys of a little inferior quality for the purpose of lesser pay, to be a 'yes boss' to the manager etc.

What is your take on this practise?

[vasu maj]

Welcome Johana, to Javaranch.

Where did you get the motivation and knowledge to write this book from? Are you in recruting?

A brief introduction and then more questions about your book..


Thanks,

Vasu
[ February 15, 2005: Message edited by: vasu maj ]

[Ilja Preuss]

People, please use this thread *only* to welcome Johanna, ask your questions in new threads. Thanks!

Posts in this thread *will not* be eligible for the giveaway, regardless of the content.

And Johanna, welcome!

[Marc Peabody]

From Amazon.com:

About the Author
Johanna Rothman is a highly regarded speaker, author, and consultant; she is known for her pragmatic approach to the problems of managing high technology product development and workers. During the past twenty years, she has been influential in the hiring of hundreds of technical people, including developers, testers, technical editors, technical support staff, and their managers. Based in Arlington, Massachusetts, she is the president of Rothman Consulting Group.
... Rothman is a frequent speaker and author on managing high-technology product development and has written more than 100 articles and papers. She is a columnist for Software Development, Computerworld.com, and StickyMinds.com. She also publishes Reflections, an acclaimed quarterly newsletter about managing product development.

[ February 15, 2005: Message edited by: Marc Peabody ]

[Kishore Dandu]

Originally posted by Ilja Preuss:
People, please use this thread *only* to welcome Johanna, ask your questions in new threads. Thanks!

Posts in this thread *will not* be eligible for the giveaway, regardless of the content.

And Johanna, welcome!

Thanks for clarifying.

After being involved with lot of book promotions actively for a while, there still some rules that we come to know once in a while.

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Welcome Johanna! This looks like an interesting book.

[Johanna Rothman]

Naina wanted to see the table of contents online. Here it is: Hiring the Best... Table of Contents

Homer wanted to know what qualified me to write the book, and how do I get feedback on the efficay of my ideas:

I've hired over 100 people in various positions, ranging from software developers and testers, to first, middle, and senior management. I've made mistakes (early in my management career) and learned from them.

I got feedback on my ideas by tracking how successful my hires were, how many people I had to fire, and what happened when other people didn't follow my advice.

Linda wanted to know about hiring someone who would fit the organization. Yes, cultural fit is something I discuss in the book (and it's a lot more than big/small company, which is what a lot of people think is cultural fit). See also Cultural Fits and Starts

Vasu, I'm not a recruiter. I'm a management consultant, who was frustrated by how poorly my clients hired (or more likely, didn't hire) people. Hiring managers didn't know how to define a hiring strategy, didn't filter resumes, didn't phone screen, were terrible at interviewing, and didn't make an offer in a timely fashion. Then they wondered why they couldn't get the projects done. I started writing the book because one of my clients couldn't find a Tier 1 tech support person. It's not that hard to find a good Tier 1 tech support person, but this manager had looked for over 3 months and couldn't find anyone. I wrote up "everything I knew" in outline form, and sure enough, that was the book outline. Of course, I realized when I started writing that I knew more.

[ edited to fix link -ds ]
[ February 18, 2005: Message edited by: Dirk Schreckmann ]

[findmeout]

hi Johanna,

Have you handled Exceptions ?? spoofing ?? psychologists ??
Just to curious to know if you handled all the usecases!.

Regards,
findme