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06.25.07
Hiring: When Being Smart Just Isn't Enough
By Dan Morrill
Hire the best people that you can find, the problem is hiring the best people you can find.
Marc Andreesen though has some really helpful hints in probably one of the most concise hiring practices manifesto I have ever read. (If I actually stop to read the whole article and comment on it, it blew me away).
The URL for the original article is here.
Marc brings up the idea of Drive, Curiosity and Ethics as the main criteria for hiring the right person. Hands down not a problem with his top three requirements in a candidate, but I would look for one more thing to round it out, dedication. Dedication is one of those objectives where they do or will answer the phone at 2AM if there is something going wrong. They are going to want to be part of the solution if everything has gone downhill quickly, and the company is at a dead standstill. Not that this should be abused by a company, if the place is continually crashing at 2AM, then something else needs to be done, but they love what they do, that they want to be part of it.
Ethics, Marc brings up the idea that if they are going to try to bullshit you from the git go, that they have faulting ethics, and should be avoided. Ethics is really important when you are hiring, it was faulty ethics that have caused many of the major company bankruptcies over the last decade. We always hear about companies that are going out of business or have major troubles because faulty ethics lead to looting of the company or worst, some issue or problem that compromised the people who did business with that company. If they BS you at the interview, they will continue to BS you all the way through their tenure at the company.
This is a majorly good point to be making, ethics, or the sense of right and wrong that a person has is built into their character, you as a manager are not really going to change it, nor is an ethics policy from a company going to change it either. Dark Reading points out that 20% of IT employees think it is OK for them to go through other people's e-mails on a random basis without authorization. So when you ask your IT candidates questions, you should be asking some basic ethics questions along the way, for example:
Is it ok to go through people's e-mail without authorization
Is it OK to go through a file share called legal or personnel or choose sensitive data point here if they have left it unprotected? If they have left it unprotected, what would you do with that knowledge?
Is it OK to use company data for personal knowledge if you have no need to know, or you just stumbled across it?
What would you do if you found someone's computer unlocked and no one was at his or her desktop?
What would you do it you found a company computer at a pawn shop?
Ask your IT candidates many questions like the ones above. They will after all have the keys to the company, if they are not above reproach, you probably do not want to hire them. It will give you a good idea of where they ethically lay in the ethics power curve. Moreover, this is information that you want to know long before they are on your network.
The last major good point Marc brings up is call references, and take a look at how references use language when dealing with the person that you are asking about. If the reference wonders why someone would have used them for a reference, or refuses to say anything other than the company "they worked here blah, consider that to. Pay attention to how the references say things, and then use your own thoughts on the language to sum up their behavior on their past jobs.
Always be super careful when hiring someone, make sure the candidate is not just the things they say on their resume, but people who will fit in well with your company.
Comments
About the Author:
Dan Morrill has been in the information security field for 18 years, both
civilian and military, and is currently working on his Doctor of Management.
Dan shares his insights on the important security issues of today through
his blog, Managing
Intellectual Property & IT Security, and is an active participant in the
ITtoolbox blogging community.
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