Baby Boomers, be careful of what you say in an interview

I was talking with a Baby Boomer couple this past weekend about job searching, interviews and their careers — which got me to thinking.  (Yeah, you know the drill, brace yourself.)  This couple is on the younger side of the Baby Boomer generation and they are still eager to continue working for another 10 years.  In talking with them, I heard a number of themes I believe would keep them from landing a job with most companies and I thought it would help to share my thoughts here.  (I did share my perspective with them as well.)  To provide some perspective on this couple:

These baby boomers did not have a LinkedIn account and only one was on Facebook but with minimal engagement.  Both spouses had been employed with their respective employers for the past 15 – 20 years and over time, although it wasn’t a conscious decision, a mentality developed:  

• I am going to retire with this company I don’t need to worry about networking. 
• I am going to end my career with this company so I don’t need a LinkedIn account.
• For this couple at least, this mentality kept their personal networks limited to just the people they worked with within their immediate departments, and the only new ideas, technologies and products they were exposed to came from their employers.
• We don’t like to connect online.  When we want to talk with someone, we call them up.  

They both assumed they would not have the need to look for another job.  Even as the economy started to fail, they felt very secure working with their large companies, assuming the layoffs would never happen to them.    

They admitted they were a little out of touch from the job search / networking scene and were looking for some feedback.  One observation I made was that the resistance to social networking, specifically with LinkedIn and social media, in part, contributed to a lack of overall awareness when it came to networking in general. 

There were some common Baby Boomer themes that I heard throughout our discussion which I hear on a fairly regular basis from this generation.  I believe these end up hurting their careers and their job searches.  They are:

• “I have been out of touch because I haven’t needed to look for a job.”
• “Companies don’t treat employees like they used to.”
• “I am over 50 and companies would rather hire someone younger.”
• “I am looking for a company to retire with.”
• “I don’t like to interview with recruiters and hiring managers that are 10 to 20 years younger than me.”

None of these attitudes is going to gain anyone any points in an interview.  I thought it might help to provide some perspective on the above and interpret what these themes mean to most hiring managers: 

I have been out of touch because I haven’t needed to look for a job.

As a recruiter, I don’t want to hire someone that is “out of touch”.  While you may not use the exact words “out of touch” in an interview, if you mention that you have not had to interview in the past 15 years, this could be interpreted as out of touch.  Here’s why:  If you haven’t had to interview in the past 15 years then what you just said is that no one has been interested in your skill set.  With the advent of LinkedIn, almost all profiles are getting “a look” from recruiters, net-workers, and hiring managers – even those not actively searching for a job.  The “look” may not be for a job per se.  It could just as easily be about keeping in touch, discussing new ideas, or asking for advice, but these conversations can lead to a job interview.  Companies are looking to hire candidates that have kept up with the industry, new trends, technology and ideas.  We are not looking to hire candidates that only learned about new ideas or trends in the industry because their employer forced them.  There are candidates that embrace new ideas, new technologies, and new theories of their own volition and there are candidates that just go with the flow.  Guess which group hiring managers want to work with.  This same idea extends to the job search.  Just because you didn’t need to look for a job doesn’t mean you should give the impression that no one was interested in you.  If you haven’t had to interview in the past 15 years, that is a good thing.  Just don’t share it with your interviewers because they don’t need to know this.

(Yes, there are candidates that haven’t had to search for a job because jobs came to them.  I get that.  Generally speaking, though, there is some form of interview with these offers.)

Companies don’t treat employees like they used to, or they don’t care.

I hear this from Baby Boomers regularly and, true or not, they need to get over this mentality.  Any mention of this will be an interview killer because hiring managers do not want to hire a candidate who is living in the good ol’ days.  No one wants to hire someone that isn’t in the present.  If I go out on a date with a woman, I don’t want to hear about how her ex-boyfriend was so great and so much fun.  I don’t want to hear about how she was treated like a queen and every night was New Year’s Eve.  This is living in the past.  I want to hang out with someone that is looking toward the future and new opportunities.   Come ON! What am I, lunch meat? 

Companies may not treat employees like they used to but this isn’t yesteryear’s economy and this is common knowledge.  If a candidate alludes to resentment over this, they aren’t going to be hired.   It’s OK to remember the great managers and great companies that got you where you are today.  Just don’t reminisce about them in a way that will make me feel like the company I am recruiting for isn’t able to compete with that memory. 

I am over 50 and companies want to hire someone younger and cheaper than me: 

There are plenty of positions out there that require experience and plenty of it.  What companies do not want to hire is a candidate that is insecure about their age, height, weight, or any other perceived weakness.  Yes, there are plenty of jobs where experience isn’t needed, but there are plenty of positions that require not only industry experience but maturity and good judgment as well.  And guess what, there are plenty of younger people pulling high salaries.  It’s not about age and it’s not about salary.  It’s about the ability to deliver results.    

I don’t like to interview with whippersnappers that are 10 – 20 years younger than me. 

I blogged about what you need to think about when interviewing with someone younger than you here.  Read that again.

I am looking for a company to retire with.

I don’t think this statement is going to kick you out of an interview loop.  I will say that I think this statement will make a candidate sound a bit naive.  This isn’t interview advice; this is my own personal advice.  I wouldn’t look to retire with ANY specific company.  I would go into a company and do my best.  I would hope that I have a long and fulfilling CAREER that may take me different places, not a long JOB at one company.  I think that if an employee works for a single company for 15 years, the chances go up that their skill set is very niche and not very transferable.  For my own security, I need to evaluate my opportunities every 2-3 years.  I will revisit the opportunities I have created for myself and the opportunities presented to me.  I will reset my opinion of where the company is in the marketplace.  If I am growing my skill set, career and the company is stable, I will stay.  If my options are becoming limited, I need to consider my future.  Too many large companies have been hit by the economy to rely on “any one company” for retirement.  

My last piece of advice for someone from the Boomer generation is to limit the experience listed on your resume.  You are only going to be hired at your desired salary for what you did within the last 5 years.  I see a lot of resumes that list 20 years of experience and the first 10 years of experience is VERY junior to the desired position.  The experience is too junior to be relevant.  The experience listed from the first 10 years is doing two things:

• Making you look like you have years of unnecessary experience.  This experience doesn’t translate to qualified experience if it isn’t at the level required for the desired position.  This excess experience translates to something like: “How many trees did we kill printing off all these extra pages of irrelevance?  A Sr. candidate should know better.”  
• Making you look old.  This gives away your age to a recruiter and makes the candidate look like they have been working for way too long and might be too “stuck in their ways” to make the transition to a new position.  

So — the moral of the story is to be excited about the future, the new position, the new people in your network and your skill set. 

HRNasty

nasty:  an unreal maneuver of incredible technique, something that is ridiculously good, tricky and manipulative but with a result that can’t help but be admired, a phrase used to describe someone that is good at something. E.G.  “He has a nasty fork ball”.

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Are you blowing social media opportunities?

Social media deserves respect

Think about your potential reader before you tweet or post a rant or negative content in your social stream.  You never know who is looking.  Social media gives the world access to your life.  You are living in the proverbial glass house, and if you keep a messy house, everyone has access.   If you do not want the public to judge you then don’t give them the opportunity.  We all wonder if Lindsey Lohan understands how public her life really is because if she did realize how many people were watching, you would think that she would slow her roll. 

I look at social media in a very similar way.  Social media doesn’t just give your social network insight to your life, but the entire internet-connected world is granted access to your life.  My friend, your life isn’t as private as you may think.  

According to a recent CareerBuilder article, 37% of companies use Social Media to research job candidates

There has been a lot of talk about social media in the job search lately and how more companies are using information found online to make the hiring decision.  I may not base a hiring decision on the content of your social graph, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a data point I take into consideration.  But the point is that your social graph IS a data point. I realize I am but a grain of sand in the desert of hiring managers but there are plenty of busy body, insecure manager wanna-be’s that thinks you are out to take their job, and will find some dirt on you.  You may not have any dirt listed in your social stream, but what may only be dingy to you may be doggy doo doo to another. 

As much as I am trying to help candidate land job offer and employee climb the career ladder, there are those that oppose the way in which I am going about it, the language I use, and the examples I make.  Hence, the mask, dark glasses and the hat.  I am an insider, and one way that I will be able t help is to tell the truth.   

Lets break down the listed stats and then give you the Nasty view behind the kimono:    

37% of companies use Social Media to research job candidates

• I say the number is higher.  Much higher.  In a technology company, I would venture that the number is closer to 90 plus %.  I just blogged about a company that took the use of Social Media to the next level by asking for a candidates Facebook login during an interview.  I am confident that just about every company out there is using LinkedIn.   

34% of hiring managers that use social media say they have found a reason to decline a candidate via social media

• Again, I would say the number is higher because I believe that most hiring managers just don’t want to admit to these tactics.  There is only downside in this confession.  In the least, what they may not have found may not have caused them to decline a candidate, but it didn’t help your case toward a job offer.    

29% of hiring manager say that they have FOUND something that caused them to hire a candidate

• I completely agree with this statement and I believe the number SHOULD be much higher.  This is a huge opportunity for the candidate that is usually NOT being leveraged.  Writing style, how someone presents themselves, opinions they voice or the help they bring to a forum are all actions that reinforce the idea of a great potential employee.    

Some stats mentioned in the survey:

• Employers primarily use Facebook (65%), LinkedIn (63%) and Twitter (16%)
• 15% of employers surveyed DO NOT allow Facebook in the workplace. 
• Any recruiter or hiring manager worth their salt will check for personal blogs, comments on forums, a candidates name on a program of an industry related conference as a guest speaker.  All of these are outside of the Big 3 in the social media sphere and SHOULD be leveraged. 

Regardless of what you think is happening, or what empirical data is suggesting, I want to leave you with three thoughts. 

1. The use of social media in the interview process is only going to become MORE prevalent in time as companies move into the future.  Resistance really is futile.
2. Even if a company doesn’t allow employees to view social media sites at work, too many people have smart phones that CAN access these sites from work and everyone has access at home.
3. If there is even a chance your profile is going to be looked at, don’t just clean it up, LEVERAGE YOUR PROFILE and online presence to help land the job. 

Social Media is an eye catcher

Don’t be afraid of Social Media.  To most recruiters Social Media is an eye catcher and it will only become more prevalent in the work place.  Below are some ideas on how you can leverage the above stats to YOUR advantage and take the fight to the hiring manager:

If you don’t have a profile, start one now.  You may not be looking for a job.  You may be happily employed.  But remember a hiring manager within your company may be checking you out for a new team, department or opportunity. A friend you know may refer you to an opportunity that you don’t know about.  Your profile is being surreptitiously pinged.  LinkedIn tells you who is checking you out and how many times you were checked out.  If we know that our profiles are going to be checked, use this information to your advantage.  Don’t cower, don’t hide.  The best defense is a strong offense.

Ask a (conservative) friend to look at your profile and if they even HINT that something is in poor taste, remove it.  Don’t argue with them, don’t debate with them, just remove it.  The hiring manger may be just as conservative as your friend.  Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. 

Even if the company doesn’t allow social media in the work place,I can still check your profile from my desk via my smartphone.  It is not a matter of if someone will check your profile; it is a matter of WHEN your profile will be checked.  The person conducting the interview won’t admit to looking at your profile.  When they decline you, they are not going to say they declined you because of a picture of you passed out on a park bench cradling an empty 40 ouncer like a new born.  But make no mistake, they will decline you.      

The bottom line is that you really should clean up your online social profile.

Things to think about and leverage:

• Blogs!  Because so few people have them, they REALLY stand out.  You can be a sub par writer, but the very fact that you have a blog that is consistently updated will go FARRRRRRR.  The topic doesn’t even have to be related to the industry you are applying for but it won’t hurt if it is.  If you are a sub par writer, a blog will improve your writing.   
• Forums:  Providing advice, opinions and help in general is always a good thing.
• Rapportive:  I have Rapportive installed, and with this app, I can see your social stream via my inbox.

Pictures: 

• Make sure your profile picture is current and ONLY portrays you.  Pictures with two or more people in the profile suck because with I can not figure out which person is applying and which person is the frick’n BFF. 
• To leverage more facets of your personality, use a casual picture that shows some personality on Facebook and a professional picture suitable for a company website on LinkedIn.  Mountain climbing on FB and corporate headshot’esque picture on LinkedIn.
• The absence of a picture in this day and age is interpreted as “must look like Quasimodo and the Hunchback of Notre Dame combined”.  There must be something to hide or be embarrassed about.   If you are looking for a job, you ABSOLUTELY need a picture.  

Twitter:

• Type in the word “job search” or “interview tomorrow” and you will be amazed at the tweets that candidates post.  Swearing, bitching, complaining.  Companies want to hire employees that they can trust will represent them professionally with customers, at conferences, and online.

Coming soon:  what I think when someone states “I don’t use Facebook, I call people”. 

See you at the after party,

HRNasty

nasty:  an unreal maneuver of incredible technique, something that is ridiculously good, tricky and manipulative but with a result that can’t help but be admired, a phrase used to describe someone that is good at something.  “He has a nasty forkball”.

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Doesn’t matter where you are or what you are doing, pick up the phone!

“The phone interview is where you make your first impression.  Your voice and attitude are the ONLY things I have to go on during the phone interview.  Negative examples and rude behavior are only amplified over the phone because I take my cues from your voice, and the voice tells all.”

You have sent out your resume, and are now waiting for the call from a recruiter.

As a guy that has called on hundreds of candidates, I thought it might help to let you know what myself and most recruiters are thinking as I go through the process.  Some of this won’t be admitted to publicly, but trust me, it happens, and this is why I wear a mask and dark glasses.

If your online profile checks out, my next step is either a phone call or email, depending on my timeline.

When I call a candidate for a phone interview, I am looking for a couple of things:

• I want someone to answer the phone when I call.  I don’t want to leave a message.  If you have caller ID and don’t recognize a number, PICK IT UP!!!!  That could be your next employer calling.
• I am on a timeline to fill this position with hiring managers breathing down my back.  You wouldn’t want to follow up or leave a message and I don’t either.
• If I get a message, I want it to be a message that would work within our business setting.  I don’t want to hear Rod Stewarts “Do ya think I’m sexy” and a beep.  I don’t want to hear an automated voicemail that has your +1 yelling in the background or some cutesy message.
• If I am going to leave a message, I want to know I called the right person.  Your message should confirm who I called.  I want something polite, energetic, and is just that, “a message”.  Nothing more, nothing less.

If I do get a real person, I want to hear something that would be business appropriate and would delight our customers.  Yes, I said it, “delight”.  I want to hear a smile come through the phone, I want to hear energy, and would love to hear the candidate announce their first name.  A flat hello followed by silence is not business appropriate and I although I won’t hang up immediately, the clock is ticking and the  conversation hasn’t even started.

This is my very first impression of you, and within 5 seconds I am trying to figure out if I can bring you in to the office without embarrassing myself.  Remember, you are going to be representing me, I am going to put my reputation on the line for you when I present you to the hiring manager, so I have to figure out if you are “with me”, or “not”.

In an effort to minimize my disappointment on this initial call, I will announce myself and give you a hint.  I will literally say something like this:  “My name is HRNasty and I work with a company called Acme Publishing.  You applied for a position with our sales group and I was wondering if you were still looking for new opportunities.  I realize I am calling un announced, is this a good time?”

I don’t know how many times I get the following even before I can introduce myself:

• “Huh?”
• “Yeah”
• “Uh Huh”
• “What did you say?”
• “You finally called, what took you so long?”

So many people answer the phone as if they are expecting a telesales person.  With any one of the above answers, the conversation is over.  Why?  Because at our company, we want people to answer every phone call like it is a customer on the line.  We don’t want to train someone how to answer a phone.

Great answers sound like:

• “ Thank you for calling, I have been really excited about this opportunity since I first heard about it.”
• “Yes, this is a great time.  I have heard so many great things about your company!”
• “Thanks for calling, can you give me one minute, I want to move to a quieter place.”
• “Thank you for calling.  I am at a restaurant; I am in a meeting, can I call you right back in 15 minutes?  I am really excited to talk about the opportunity.”

Sounds corny as I write it, and sounds cornier as I read it back, but trust me, this stuff works.   The tone has been set and here is why:

• I don’t feel like I have to explain myself
• I feel welcome
• I feel like I have someone that isn’t just looking for a job, but wants to be with ACME Publishing.

See the theme in the two sets of bullet points?  Excitement has been conveyed by the candidate and the words “I feel” from me.

When you called your first high school crush, and the answer was positive and welcoming, “Game on!”    If she said “I am so happy you called, I was hoping I would hear from you” the tone was set for the rest of the conversation.  When you called your first crush and got the “yeah, what do you want?” regardless of your crushes “intent”, the “impact” was felt.

Make me feel like your first crush.

Like any phone interview, I will have a few standard questions.  You should know these are coming and be prepared:

• Can you tell me what you know about the company.  (This is a test, how interested are you?)
• What are you looking for in a new position?
• How much are you looking for?  ( I want to know if we are in the same ballpark financially)
• When can you come in to talk?  (Hint, if you are really interested, you will move your schedule)
  • When the hot girl called you up for a date, you dumped mom’s Sunday dinner to make it.

After you get off the phone interview send a thank you email.  Send it postal mail to the attention of the recruiter if you didn’t get the email address.

If you are asked to come in to interview in person (congratulations!).  Send a thank you email including the following:

• Reinforce that you are excited about the opportunity
• Confirm the time and date of your interview.
• Keep it short

Don’t:

• ask about benefits
• ask about pay  (the recruiter will ask about this)
• ask about vacation, parking, time off

See the theme?  At this point, the conversation is about me.  This phone call isn’t about the candidate “yet’.

Do feel free to ask me:

• What do you like about the company?
• What attracted you to the company?
• Any advice for me?  (you will be surprised how easy this is, remember, you represent me)
• How did this position become open?  Is it a new position?  (Don’t ask if someone got fired)

This interview will probably be short.  The recruiter will make a pretty quick decision based on your social profile, blog, and profile picture, and this conversation whether or not they feel you will be a “fit”.  Help them keep it short.

A phone interview is to confirm what is already suspected.  Based on the resume and the your social skills over the phone, I just want to confirm your skill set and personality fall within the parameters so I can bring you in.

Good Luck!

HRNasty

http://www.hrnasty.com/how-to-piss-off-your-recruiter-hiring-manager/

http://www.hrnasty.com/set-the-tone-of-the-interview/

nasty:  an unreal maneuver of incredible technique, something that is ridiculously good, tricky and manipulative but with a result that can’t help but be admired, a phrase used to describe someone that is good at something.  “He has a nasty forkball”.

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checklist for interviews

Your most basic checklist for interview.  If you don’t cover this, you might as well stay home

Your job interview checklist is basic stuff, but as a reminder, I post it again because everyday, I see candidates blow the simple stuff.  I used to think it was due to inexperience, but experienced candidates miss the basics just as often.   This stuff is important, and I can not stress this enough.  This stuff is IMPORTANT!  My radar goes off when candidates miss the basics, the obvious, and the expected.  There is nothing worse than when a candidates cell phone rings in the middle of an interview, or just as bad is when a candidate shows up late.  Each minute a candidate is late, I am wondering if I got the schedule wrong, and by the 10th minute where the candidate hasn’t shown up, these minutes are dog minutes.  Each minute lasts 7x as long in my mind and if you didn’t call or text to give me a heads up, you might as well be over 1 hour late.  I am wasting time, and I am not going to start a new project if I am expecting someone “6 minutes ago”.  Yeah, seriously, just stay home.

The checklist for interviews on the day BEFORE the interview:

• Check the route to your interview the day before.  You don’t want to be late to this appointment.  If you are late, you just started this interview off on the wrong foot, digging yourself out of a hole and it will have been nobody’s fault except your own.   Even if you know how to get there, check where you will find parking and allot time, especially in downtown metropolitan areas.  If you are really early, wait in the car.  Don’t show up 30 minutes early.   Consider this a first date.  I don’t want to be in the shower getting ready and hear the doorbell ring and then feel rushed through my “get ready ritual”.  You think making “all this look this good” is easy?
• Brush your teeth and crush some mints.  Not just one, “some mints”.  Altoids makes those “cute little” travel tins, and Listerine makes those melt in your mouth breath fresheners.  Discreet and effective.  Interview rooms are small and since I can’t reach for my gas mask, bad breath in a small room will want me to end the meeting quickly.  In the least, I won’t be thinking about your answers.
• Make sure your phone is turned off BEFORE you enter the building.  Keep it off in the lobby while you are waiting.  If you are bored, read company literature and learn something useful.  Your Google mail can wait an hour.
• Make sure you have an interview outfit that is ready to go, clean, and pressed.  This is just showing common courtesy and even if you are just scheduled to meet with a recruiter, you never know when you may be introduced to the hiring manager or the VP of the department.

What should be listed on your “checklist for interviews”:

• Extra copies of your resume, cover letter, and references.  Nothing worse than being asked “do you have a copy of your resume” and standing there empty handed wondering “can I ask this guy to Xerox off some extra copies”.  Unprepared and Awwwkarrddd.  Do you think I go into a board meeting empty handed with no paper?  I realize this is the year of technology and everyone is trying to conserve trees, but screw the trees, this is your job we are talking about.
• A couple of extra mints.  Nervousness can cause bad breath, and if interviews go long or go well, don’t be surprised if you are asked to stay and meet with more people.   (A great sign)
• Notebook to take notes.  This notebook should have the questions YOU are going to ask written down.  It is OK to refer to notes during an interview.  Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.  Unless you are interviewing for a Spelling Bee, bring notes.  I don’t want to hire someone that thinks they can remember everything so act like you give a damm.  (Avoid taking notes on your cell phone.  Older generations are distracted by this, and don’t know about Trello or Stickies.  They will think you are sexting your next Friday night).

A checklist for interviews as you end the meetings  (even if the interview is a FAIL):

• Contact information of everyone you talked with INCLUDING the receptionist.  Once you get a name, write it down.  If you get a couple of business cards, you can figure out the email format from there and extrapolate to folks you didn’t get info on.  You don’t need an Enigma machine to figure out company emails.
• If the company has product literature, bring it home.  This might help you with talking points for your thank you letter or future research.

See you at the after party,

HRNasty

nasty:  an unreal maneuver of incredible technique, something that is ridiculously good, tricky and manipulative but with a result that can’t help but be admired, a phrase used to describe someone that is good at something.  “he has a nasty forkball”  

If you thought this post was valuable, please pay it forward or “like” us on Facebook.   Thank you!

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Don’t be afraid to let your cup spilleth over

Respect for Human Resources

Human Resources is often viewed as the court jester in many companies, a fact that I am painfully aware of.  I used to think that one of the many reasons the Human Resource department is the butt of so many jokes was a self-fulfilling vicious cycle (and this is a broad generalization): 

• Human Resources reports to someone other than the CEO and / or doesn’t have a seat at the table
• Without a seat at the table, Human Resources is viewed as and treated as a support / administrative function vs. a strategic function.
• Working in a department that is viewed as support / admin will educate and expose the members of these department to think and act in a supportive and administrative way. 
• Because they haven’t seen strategery or learned how to be strategic, Human Resources doesn’t end up figuring out how to earn a seat at the table.   (I admit that HR needs to take the initiative here)
• See first bullet point above.

(I realize the above is a VERY broad and racist generalization.)  There are many Human Resource practitioners whose departments do not report to the CEO or have a seat at the table and are strategically minded. 

I have been tinkering with an additional theory based on a lack of strategic thinking which I believe is compounding the negative reputation of the Human Resources function.  I found myself guilty of this closed minded attitude and this mentality was not hurting my credibility because I knew enough to keep my mouth shut.  On the flip side, this attitude wasn’t helping me either. I thought sharing it here might help others as well.   

I always felt that engineers think and act differently when compared to just about every other group out there.  Most engineers admit to being different and times they are a changing, because developers are rightfully taking pride in their Geekdom.  Engineers are the new black.  I won’t go so far as to say “sexy” but developers are not the nerds they were a few years back.  Heck, even playing the cello and the violin is en vogue these days with the advent of technology.

I work for a company whose make up is 66% software engineers and I sit 10 feet away from half a dozen uber smart technologists.  Sitting and working along this group has opened my mind to a new perspective. 

Yes, we are different.  I am probably considered a high maintenance Metro and these guys posses the low maintenance, edgy, urban vibe that only progressive geeks can.  I have a truck and a car with a V8, this group wants to walk, bike and eat Gluten free food.      

I think what bonds us, is that we are all passionate about what we do.  We work our 10-hour days within our respective disciplines towards the same goal and then evenings and weekends are spent working on side projects in these same disciplines.  We both think about our craft for 90% of our waking hours.   

My budding theory on lack of respect towards Human Resources in the workplace is based on the following observation. 

Developers see “something wrong” or  (in politically correct language) “a potential fix” with just about everything.  HR doesn’t usually notice there is a problem unless race, gender, age or money is involved and then all hell breaks loose.

I used to think this “something is wrong with everything” attitude was counter productive and that many developers viewed the world with this “everything sucks” lens.  I thought I held a positive “glass have full” attitude and developers had this “glass half empty” attitude.  But at the end of the day, my co-worker engineers want to fix the problem and this is a good thing.  Developers don’t just point out problems, they are looking for problems because these problems are opportunities that can be fixed and improved.  Developers are looking for challenging problems to solve and are vocally and verbally passionate about solving these problems.  There is a big difference between just pointing out a problem vs. getting off on solving a challenging or interesting problem.  

Human Resources complacency

I am an Apple fan.  MacBook Air, Ipad, and an iPhone are all part of my quiver.  I am super impressed that I am not only able to do almost anything I want with any of these platforms, but I can do it in style.  Check the river levels before I go fishing?  There is an app for that.   Check the tides before I go fishing?  Yeah, an app.  Currents in the salt water?  Phase of the moon?  GPS for my favorite fishing spot?  Check, Check, Check.  I think this is revolutionary, simply amazing and yes Nasty.  Only a few years ago, I would have had to check 5 different sources in 5 different medias to get this information and the information would have been 24 hours old.  A few years back, if I wanted to know if the water was going to be too rough for my boat, I would look at a hanging American flag on my way to the boat launch.  Based on how much this flag was waving in the air, I could figure out how hard the wind was blowing which I then translated to sea conditions.   Now I can do this in the comfort of a warm bed.  Simply put, I am as giddy as screaming teenage girl who just ran into Beiber and snapped a couple of pix.

Props to Developers

But to a developer, this isn’t good enough. In fact, it isn’t even close to good enough.  A developer would ask: “Shouldn’t I be able to pay my boat launch fee with an app instead of having to put physical paper money into a machine at 4:00 am?  Shouldn’t I be able to text the boat ramp so they know to pull my boat out of storage and have it in the water when I arrive?”  More often than not, this comes across as an angry and emotional tirade  (I am in Human Resources, so lets call it a passionate rant).  Developers do not just wonder why an app can’t perform X, Y, or Z, but demand their technology have additional functionality.  In many cases the technology is being put down for its lack of ingenuity.   A few years ago, many Apple Fans were ridiculing Steve Jobs because the new iPhone 4 didn’t have good reception.  The people demanded a fix and Apple complied with their free case program.

I used to think this mentality was looking at the product with a negative “glass half full” mentality, but have come to realize, this mentality is looking to pour the glass till it “over-flo-ith” and scales to “glasses of water”.  I was perfectly happy to hold the phone a specific way to receive reception and stared in awe at my shiny black phone, open mouth with drool on my chin wondering how they managed to get my voice from one place to another without a string attaching our two devices.         

It used to be difficult for me to see “opportunities” in perfectly functioning products when I didn’t posses the “spill some water mindset”.  I am in Human Resources and I was supposed to believe in humanity, so this didn’t come naturally. 

I once interviewed a VP level developer that candidly stated in an interview “I can make a computer do anything”.  Although the statement wasn’t made with any malice or cockiness, I heard arrogance.  Later, as I went through my notes, I realized it wasn’t an arrogant statement but a fact.  This candidate had no limitations.  After all, if we could put a man on the moon in the 60’s, we can probably make a computer do anything.  This was a different perspective on life and something this Human Resources pro-am could learn from.

When I left Corporate America and joined my first technology start up.  The founders came to me and said “Your goal is to make this company the best place to work”.  I quickly replied “No problem” thinking the company was already a good place to work and great was but a hop and a skip away.  He then added “And get this published”.  WTF?  Published???   I looked around our basement office with mismatched furniture and used desks where offices designed for a single employee had groups of 4 and 5 crammed like sardines.  In my small HR mind, my jaw dropped, sirens were blaring and lights were flashing.  “Scuse’ me, I think I mis-heard you.  Did you say published?”  Thankfully I knew to keep my mouth shut.  But you know what?  We did make the published list that first year.  In fact, we were published for the next 7 years and hit spot number 1 and number 2 for two of those years.  Human Resources wouldn’t have accomplished that on it’s own because I didn’t look at the “problem” with the same lens of opportunity as my technologist founders.  Frankly, I didn’t see a problem; I was perfectly content.  It took a technologists perspective to see a problem that wasn’t there, and then come up with a fix so that the “glass over flo-ith”. 

I now work in a start up that is trying to create not only a new product, but a new industry and this is no easy task.  Despite the challenges, Fortune brands are calling us up for this new product and as I look around at the visionaries that created this “opportunity” I feel pretty fortunate.  When we are looking to extend an offer to a potential hire, we are looking for candidates that are not only looking to tackle the impossible but to see the possibility no one else does. It takes a mentality that believes “We can make a computer do anything”.  Accepting the status quo will not move a company forward.

This has forced me to admit that for a long time I had unintentionally settled for mediocrity.  My Human Resources discipline may have trained me to tackle the impossible but what it lacked was the mentality to see how “the perfect” could be improved?  This is key to being strategic.  Pushing the limits, thinking outside the box and never accepting the status quo.  Improve the perfect and then iterate.  It should come as no surprise to me how often I hear amongst my co- workers “On a scale of 1-10, I am going to give it a 9 because nothing is perfect”.   That used to piss me off because I would regularly give an 11, but now. . .   I am a believer.

In working with developers, I have realized that my HR mentality of “glass half full” is still half empty.  Next time you see something that is perfectly acceptable, take a developers view and try to figure out how to “make the glass over-flo-ith”. 

See you at the after party,

HRNasty

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