[LRUG] [OT] A blog post about writing tech job ads

Fri May 8 08:40:15 PDT 2015

Two other things we implemented which aided the recruitment process:

We followed advice which is quickly becoming the industry norm. Never look
at someones Github profile until you have made the decision to hire or not
hire them and do not let it influence you. Github profiles tend to favor
CIS White men over most minorities in a number of ways. CIS white men often
have more spare time or chose to pursue building up an impressive portfolio
of code rather than women or minorities who have to deal with things like
raising children or instiutionalised racism. Some in the SocJus community
have even said that technically companies could possibly even be breaking
discriminatory law by allowing peoples github profiles and publicly
available code to influence their hiring decisions - watch this space.

(More info:
http://www.ashedryden.com/blog/the-ethics-of-unpaid-labor-and-the-oss-community
)

We used Randi Harper's (https://twitter.com/freebsdgirl) blockbot to assess
applicants twitter profiles for problematic or toxic viewpoints. This may
sound a bit extreme but some of the staff here suffer from Aspergers & PTSD
and our top priority is to ensure that they don't get put in triggering
situations.Making a wrong hire could present a scenario where the employee
could be triggered on a daily basis by another employee with an oppressive
viewpoint. Other than from a diversity standpoint, from a business
standpoint these sorts of negative interactions can cost a company a huge
amount of time & money in employees taking off sick days. When all the
employees are on the same page the synergy in the office aids productivity.

(More info: http://www.theblockbot.com/)

On the topic of PTSD & being triggered, we also implemented a safe-space to
help employees feel secure throughout the day and go to wherever they need
it. Its complete with soothing music, jigsaw puzzles, beanbags & mood
lighting.

:)

On Fri, May 8, 2015 at 11:32 AM, Thayer Prime <thayer at team-prime.com> wrote:

> That's fantastic Eve, thanks so much for sharing. Point 1 coming
> through so well for you is utterly brilliant. We've done that too, but
> never to the level you've taken it to with your range of boards, and
> I'm definitely going to explore & action that deeper now.
>
> Love that you've had such excellent success. Bravo! It can be done.
> And it's not particularly hard - it just takes forethought and
> planning, with some smarts that may need to be looked from outside our
> own bubbles - which sadly recruitment often lacks. But it CAN be done
> :-)
>
> On Thu, May 7, 2015 at 6:25 PM, Eve Braun <eve.t.braun at gmail.com> wrote:
> >  Hey Thayer & Ali,
> >
> >
> > Really great you both brought this up. I've been responsible for
> building up
> > a small tech team within Barclays and we've had a push towards much more
> > diversity. This has been driven by the huge lack of diversity within the
> > existing tech teams. We are tasked with building prototypes which are not
> > business critical so we have a lot of space to move around with then
> other
> > areas of the company which require levels of experience & current ability
> > which traditionally bias against minorities facing oppression.
> >
> > We avoided posting adverts on tech mailing lists and in places where
> women
> > and minorities are underrepresented, instead using the same budget we
> would
> > have used on places like unicorn jobs, in places such as in Ethnic
> minority
> > related magazines and publications, LGBT related publications and
> websites
> > (such as out.com). The cost of advertising was so expensive in tech
> related
> > spaces we could cover many more adverts in spaces that would reach to
> > minorities and we got an excellent response.
> > We never assume to know someones preferred pronoun. When responding to
> > applicants we always ask for their preferred pronoun, even if it seems
> > obvious (there's more than 2). The response to this has been great so
> far.
> > We've effectively had to create our own internal structure independent
> from
> > the rest of the company to ensure that diversity is catered for. Slowly
> but
> > surely though, we're affecting the rest of the business.
> >
> > So far we've grown the team to 6. 4 of us identify as female (with one
> being
> > transgender) and 5 of us are PoC.
> >
> > Eve.
> >
> >
> >
> > From: Chat [mailto:chat-bounces at lists.lrug.org] On Behalf Of Najaf Ali
> > Sent: 06 May 2015 14:14
> > To: Thayer Prime
> > Cc: London Ruby Users Group
> > Subject: Re: [LRUG] [OT] A blog post about writing tech job ads
> >
> >
> >
> > Konbanwa minnasan,
> >
> >
> >
> > Strong agree with everything Hannah had to say in that blog. Here's what
> I'd
> > add:
> >
> >
> >
> > * Include a clear description of the application process - A step-by-step
> > explanation of exactly what's going to happen from when a candidate sends
> > you an email to when you extend them an offer. This should include
> whether
> > or not they're being formally assessed at each stage and an
> approximation of
> > the time interval to expect while you're considering their application. I
> > stole this wholesale from here (from "Our hiring process" down). This
> helps
> > busy candidates (who've probably had plenty of horrible job application
> > experiences) figure out how much effort the process will take and how to
> > prepare.
> >
> >
> >
> > * Mention the downsides of working with you - Put genuine negatives to
> > working with you here. Be wary that you may have backwards rationalised
> > things to yourself that are unpalatable to the average developer (e.g.
> > "Rails 2.3 isn't so bad..."). Doing this serves to disqualify candidates
> for
> > whom these negatives are absolute deal-breakers, which is cheaper at the
> > application stage than it is during probation. It also adds credibility
> to
> > the rest of your post. Try not to insult the intelligence of the people
> > you're trying to hire though, they'll see right through veiled attempts
> at
> > aggrandising yourself framed as a negative.
> >
> >
> >
> > * Ask ideal candidates for feedback on the job post - Pick four or five
> > developer acquaintances of yours that fit your job description and ask
> them
> > nicely to review the post. Ask them to be brutal and uncharitable in
> their
> > reading of it. Is any of it unclear? Is there anything exclusionary? Is
> > there anything preventing them from applying? What other information
> would
> > they like to see? Thank them graciously for whatever feedback they give
> you.
> > You don't have to take all of their feedback on board but that's not the
> > point. Like in a good first UX test, you're looking for the
> head-slappingly
> > bad mistakes. In particular, if diversity is important to you, I'd
> suggest
> > that you include people from a demographic underrepresented on your team
> in
> > your reviewers. A nice side benefit of asking for feedback is that if
> your
> > "ideal candidates" happen to like your job post, they may end deciding to
> > apply to it (exactly what happened with us, the candidate got the job).
> >
> >
> >
> > All the best,
> >
> >
> >
> > -Ali, http://happybearsoftware.com
> >
> >
> >
> > P.S. We were until recently hiring a senior developer using all of the
> above
> > for the job listing, but as I mentioned the position was filled before we
> > went public with it. It got broadly good feedback from reviewers so let
> me
> > know off-list if you'd like to see it.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 8:00 PM, Thayer Prime <thayer at team-prime.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Just came across: "Writing an effective tech job description", by
> > @smokingpun >
> >
> http://contentedstrategy.com/blog/2015/05/01/Writing-an-effective-job-description.html#.VUnx3qbXiw0.twitter
> >
> > It's got some really important and smart points in it, and I know
> > there's plenty of hiring and job description writing on this list,
> > figured it may help anyone in the position of writing ads to really
> > think about hiring for the team you want to be, instead of just hiring
> > for a project or work or back filling a role (likely, male) that just
> > opened up.
> >
> > Particularly, as I was reading I was +1ing about the diversity stuff
> > she writes about.
> >
> > We (Team Prime) get asked by all our clients to hire for diversity as
> > their number one priority (which is brilliant! Yay ace clients!), but
> > often that takes some changes in the org and structure to accommodate
> > what they're after. Well worth bearing in mind if you want to reap the
> > benefits of having a diverse team - it's not just about Getting More
> > Minorities Sat At Desks, it's about how you structure your company and
> > recruitment process to allow for diversity to be encouraged and
> > embraced.
> >
> > Cheers
> > Thayer
> >
> > --
> > Thayer Prime
> > --------------------
> > CEO & Founder
> > Team Prime Ltd
> > http://www.team-prime.com
> >
> > http://www.linkedin.com/in/thayerprime
> > http://www.thayerprime.com
> > @Thayer
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
> Thayer Prime
> --------------------
> CEO & Founder
> Team Prime Ltd
> http://www.team-prime.com
>
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/thayerprime
> http://www.thayerprime.com
> @Thayer
>
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