Agile Recruitment Attracting Success

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Agile Recruitment Attracting Success
This workshop will explore the differences
between traditional approaches to recruitment and
those that better suit when recruiting for an
Agile team. We will discuss techniques that
may be used to ensure that we are hiring
candidates that will fit our Agile way of life.
William Jones Mark Kennedy
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Agenda

• Introductions (under 5 minutes)
• Short Presentation (about 20 minutes)
• Discussion Panel (about 30 minutes)
• Summary (last 5 minutes)

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Introductions

• William Jones
• Independent consultant
• Currently coaching at BNP Paribas
• Regularly experiences both sides of recruitment
• Mark Kennedy
• Project manager at BNP Paribas
• Used recruitment in transforming a team to Agile
• Who are you?
• And what do you want out of this workshop?

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A Traditional Approach

• Your Plan Says You Need More Resource
• ... so you have to hire someone
• Hiring Process Is Time Consuming
• ... so you limit the number of CVs
• Developers Are Busy
• ... so you don't distract them with recruitment
• You Have To Hire Someone
• ... so you settle for the best that you see

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The Result

• You can end up
• wasting a lot of time
• settling for someone your team wouldn't want
• if they are any good they've already gone
  somewhere else by the time you decide

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Recruitment Is Important

• People Make Projects Successful
• Bring New Experience
• Technical skills
• Agile / XP know-how
• Increase Velocity
• Replacing Lost People

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What We Want In A Candidate

• Strong Ability
• It's not about the technology / tools
• The Soft Skills
• Good communication
• Willingness to contribute
• Desire to change be agile
• Compatibility
• Values / Culture
• Team Fit

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Finding Candidates

• Employee Recommendations
• Community Contacts
• Conferences, SIGs, etc
• Direct Approaches From Candidate
• Recruitment Agencies
• Working with the agent
• Always Be On The Lookout!

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Evaluating Candidates

• The CV
• How much can you really tell from it?
• Telephone Interview
• Face-To-Face Interview
• Practical Exercise
• Set Piece versus Time In The Team

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Key Lessons

• Don't Settle You Have To Be 110 Sure
• Not Finding Someone Suitable Is Not Failure
• Don't Waste Time On People You're Not Going To
  Hire
• Interview Is A Two Way Thing

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And Now For Your Experiences

• What do you do?
• What has worked?
• What hasn't worked?
• What else might work?