I hadn’t engaged in this previously, but I’d actually like to share a bit of background about this advert now. It may be interesting, or just illuminating.
We’ve traditionally posted adverts that conform to a fairly standard template. We’ve also used recruiters. During the interview we’d then try to talk about the ways that working for us is different, and the things that matter to us. I’d get a lot of poorly matched applications, and waste a lot of time, both for the applicants, and for me. I decided to change tactics. I’ve been hiring developers for this company for over a decade and it seemed I’d fallen into a pattern. At first it was just nibbling around the edges, but then I junked the whole advert template and started from scratch. I wanted to convey what we’re looking for directly, rather than trying to work out how to list skills and requirements and somehow make that produce the right people. The culture matters much more to us than the skills or the experience. So I didn’t list any skills or requirements. Just some of what care about, and what we’re interested in. If someone fits with our culture, then specific skills can be easily learned. For the most part this has gone exceptionally well. It got picked up by quite a few remote working lists, and reposted, and I received about a hundred top quality applications. Very few poor applications, very few recruiters, very few outsourcing teams. Most of the applicants cited the application itself as why they’re interested in talking to us, which was gratifying. I’m not going to address Jeff’s actual comments, because I don’t want to cause a debate that the organisers of this list wanted to avoid, and I agree with them. If people don’t like the advert, or the salary, then I’d encourage them to ignore it and move on, and that’s fine. I do appreciate, though, that Jeff was probably trying to help me, and I’ve considered his feedback. Perhaps I should have replied earlier to thank Jeff for it. Gareth On 8 February 2016 at 12:30:26, Graham Ashton ([email protected]) wrote: On Mon, 8 Feb 2016, at 12:01 PM, Louis Goff-Beardsley wrote: > To be fair, although harsh, IMO Jeff is actually providing valuable > feedback to OP and to any potential observers. I’d put it to you that over > time this has a net positive effect on employee conditions. I’d agree with you Louis, if I thought we all felt the same way Jeff does about the original post. There’ll be a range of opinions. I don’t share Jeff’s feelings, so I’m not sure I’d like future job postings to be influenced that heavily as a result. If I was looking for a job, and the salary/seniority was a good fit for me, a post like Gareth's would probably lead to me getting in touch for a chat. The only thing it was missing from my point of view was a 2 sentence summary of what Thermeon do (it’s part of my “are we a good fit?” criteria). I’d always expect to uncover more about what was on offer via email, or over the phone. I only mention this to provide context for why I thought it was fine. But back to your point – if advertisers had lots of feedback (representing multiple points of view) to influence their future posts, then I’m sure it’d be useful to them. I think you’d need to focus on positive feedback over negative feedback though, otherwise all you’d have is a list of “don’t do this, or this… or this…” which wouldn’t make Ruby seem very approachable! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "North West Ruby User Group (NWRUG)" group. To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/nwrug-members/IQvrPejtjjs/unsubscribe. To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/nwrug-members. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "North West Ruby User Group (NWRUG)" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/nwrug-members. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
