Dinah YoungProject Manager / Software Asset Manager| Prince William CountySpringfield, Va, United States
Many of us have been involved in the hiring process. We look at the resume, we talk to the person, we check their references, they seem to have everything that is needed.
Then they start and for some reason it just does not work out (personality, skill level, etc.). Or they may surprise you and exceed all expectations.
I can think of an example of each.
The first person seemed to be a good fit. But after starting we realized that her skills were not as strong as we thought and she struggled to learn new technologies. We handled this by mentoring her more and sending to some training. She was never a super star but she did contribute to the projects she was on.
The second example was a person that came in for an interview for a full time position. She ended up not getting selected because the person in the supporting part time position was just more qualified. When we started interviewing for the part time position, I suggested that they reach out to her again and see if she would be interested in interviewing again. She did and was selected.
Three years later and she has not only excelled, she has since transferred to another position where she is managing others.
What have been some of your memorable experiences with hiring people? Saving Changes...
I think this is pretty interesting and thank you for the share.
As I am someone in search of PM work in the near future, it's nice to know that there are companies out there willing to mentor and train if a candidate could use some polishing to their set of skills.
It's also nice and I assume it happens fairly often that those with less qualifications on paper turn out to be some of the most driven and hard working individuals.
This gives me more optimism to where if I need to take a chance outside of my field, I could possibly still land myself in a very nice position.
PM work (title wise) specific to logistics/freight forwarding is not so easy to find. Once I obtain my CAPM to start, I am open to other fields. It would be nice to take my experience with me in a related job though. Saving Changes...
My very first hire was memorable. The candidate didn't show up for his initial interview because he thought it was the day after. I could have rejected him right away for a lack of preparation, organization or professionalism, but decided to give him a second chance to show up. He did, knocked the interview out of the park and was a great asset to the organization.
Kiron Saving Changes...
George MonnatTechnical Delivery Manager| Kapsch TrafficCom North AmericaAustin, Tx, United States
Hiring is such a resource-intensive and risky exercise. Two jobs ago, my boss, the CEO, and I were staffing up after getting a big contract. Two of the positions we needed were a software simulation developer and a firmware engineer.
The applicant for the software simulation developer was a typical software guy; he mumbled a lot and made funny noises. My boss didn't want to hire him, because he couldn't understand him. I told the CEO that I was the one working with the guy, he was technically qualified, and I speak software and will translate. We hired him, he made an awesome product that we sold to a massive company, and was kept through multiple layoffs as a critical employee.
My boss was a PhD who was picky on university grades (as am I to a degree, no pun intended). One of our firmware engineer applicants, for an internship, had really poor grades her freshman year in the same program from which I had graduated. She corrected the problem and got mostly As after, but her GPA was not very high. My boss didn't want to hire her based on that alone, but I convinced him that it was due to her freshman year being away from her hometown and family and in the 'big city' of Austin for the first time. We hired her, and she was awesome. She went from intern to FT, and after we had to let her go went on to a very successful career. Saving Changes...
