[AusNOG] Looking for the right people

[Jonathan Thorpe]

The ad seems to have certainly got people's attention :)

>From personal experience, writing job ads is hard, but I usually do them with a view that I will be asking someone in an interview to discuss experiences that demonstrate these attributes - this particular ad would make it very hard for me.

I hope Gerard doesn't mind some public feedback as while it's not strictly technical, hiring is necessary part of our operations and it's always good to get some industry feedback :)

I think the first part is fine, but unless you're looking for a psychopath (in particular with relation to item 5), I would suggest changing "personal attributes" as follows:

1. "You will have excellent written and verbal communication skills, you can communicate and interact effectively at technical and business levels in a broad range of situations."

Change this to:
"An excellent communicator with a knack for explaining technical concepts to executives and transforming business objectives into elegant technical solutions.".

2. "A passion for technology, you lay awake thinking about the stuff". 

I would be more specific while avoiding the potential for giving people the wrong impression about work/life balance:  "Passionate about exploring the latest technologies and finding interesting ways to apply them to what we do.".

3. "You're driven by mastery to be the best at everything you do".

Change to:
"You have a keen attention to detail and strive to master everything you work with."

4. " Personal or technical, you find yourself always doing something to keep your brain stimulated".

I think this might be a bit redundant, but sounds fine.

While it's important that people learn, there's greater value in collaboration and mentoring rather than concentrating skills or expertise with one or two individuals which seems to be missing from this ad. I would use this point instead to say:

"You appreciate the value of collaboration and mentoring and keen to learn as well as teach colleagues about new skills and technologies."
 
5. " You will have a low tolerance for mediocrity and are personally offended by mistakes and stupidity".

While everyone is different, I have worked with the extreme end of this and it's unpleasant to the point where someone with fewer skills or less experience would be more favourable because there's likely to be a greater capacity to learn. Taking things personally can provoke an irrational responses to seemingly benign situations, let alone a high-pressure one.

I would simply change this to (while trying to keep within the quirky nature of the ad):
"You're driven by innovation and challenge the status quo of what is thought possible.".

6. " You will have skills but recognise that the right attitude is more important (because you can learn anything)".

I like that one.



Kind Regards,
Jonathan


-----Original Message-----
From: AusNOG [mailto:ausnog-bounces at lists.ausnog.net] On Behalf Of Karl Auer
Sent: 22 February 2016 22:16
To: AUSNOG <ausnog at lists.ausnog.net>
Subject: Re: [AusNOG] Looking for the right people

On Mon, 2016-02-22 at 21:51 +1100, Kristoffer Sheather @ CloudCentral
wrote:
> Why don't you redraft it to show us all how a professional does it?

A professional does it for money.

Been there, done that - remember the heyday of government contractors, back in the eighties? I worked for a while as a headhunter and wrote more ads (and resumes) than you can possibly imagine. Had many a surreptitious cuppa at clandestine meetings with young guns in cheap suits earning more money than they had any right to :-) Oh, they were great days, great days. Modesty forbids etc. However, I realised pretty soon that I had fallen in with professional liars, so one day I wrote my own resume and moved on.

Regards, K.


--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer
http://twitter.com/kauer389

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