Hiring the Right People

Those who are "good" at what they do.

Part 1: why I am awesome (seriously, I rock)

I'm quite good.
Because I want to be good.
Because I cannot stand bad.

Part 2: what about the others

Noone is born good.
All the good ones became good.
Because they wanted to be good.
Because they couldn't accept bad.

Part 3: how to find the good ones

I prefer finding the bad ones, usually those that remain are quite good ;)

If they accept bad, you can be sure they're bad.
If they don't want to be good, you can be sure they're bad.
If it's both, they're really bad.

Part 4: building the test

Here, it gets a bit more complicated, because you need someone who's actually good to tell you what is bad and what is good.

That's a bit chicken and egg, but you can always ask me for IT, or spend the time to craft deep psychological tests that cover the two simple axioms I outlined above.

Part 5: How to keep your good people

We know their motivation, it was outlined above, now we just need to feed it.

Help them improve, make them work with good tools and towards good goals.

Then, pay them well (say 2 to 3 times industry standard).

If somebody "good" doesn't bring you at least 5x the value of somebody "bad", he's probably more "bad" than "good".

While this is secondary to treating them well, they have to feel that you recognize their contribution, otherwise they'll be frustrated and move on.

And most of all, don't ever ask them to follow the decisions of somebody who's actually 'bad' and doesn't want to learn (be convinced of the better alternative) - you'll piss them off and it'll end up in non-productivity or them leaving.

Your company can be the awesomeness sanctuary they've been looking for, don't miss that opportunity.

Here are two example tests, that many people will disagree with, but that are nevertheless perfectly accurate.

Example 1: MySQL

Do you know MySQL (y)
Do you use it (n)
Why (because it's broken in many ways and the advertised features aren't actually supported)

If someone says he uses MySQL, and he was NOT forced to do it, you have determined that they can accept bad.
However, they might still be pretty good, if they actually want to be good - and you should settle with that because that's still a lot better than the rest.

That's something you can measure easily, too, by presenting them with mysql's shortcomings and pgsql as a solution.
If at that point, the person says anything like "depends on use case", congratulations you've confirmed they're real bad, don't hire them.

Example 2: Apple OSX

Do you know OSX(y)
Do you use it (n)
Why (because it's broken in many ways and fuck it why can't I maximize a window, what the fuck is that moronic one-button clickpad, I'm losing productivity aaaaaaaargh) - bonus points if they're foaming at the mouth, it means their inner world is incompatible with failure, that's a guarantee of extreme attention to quality .

If someone says he uses Apple OSX, and he was NOT forced to do it, you have determined that they can accept bad.
However, they might still be pretty good, if they actually want to be good - and you should settle with that because that's still a lot better than the rest.

That's something you can measure easily, too, by presenting them with OSX's shortcomings and linux as a solution.
If at that point, the person says anything like "depends on use case", congratulations you've confirmed they're real bad, don't hire them.

This is a test for techies only - using apple products is not a relevant metric for most other fields.

Bad broken tools don't depend on use case, they depend on hospital bills.

Disk lamer

I totally forgot to mention Curiosity, but then it was implicit in the "Do you know ?" part and subsequent questions.

If you were shocked by one of the two examples, please note that I totally respect your freedom of choosing inferior tools, and am merely pointing out their inferiority, nothing more.

As everything that I write, this article *could* be completely wrong.
I just feel that it's right, and as it is quite clearly much better than current hiring processes, you should probably use my method if you want "good" people to work for you.