tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67439740620537845342011-11-18T17:38:39.677-08:00"The King's Shilling" was the sum drunken civilians were tricked into taking at the hands of the "Press Gangs" of 18th Century Britain. Recruiting since then has changed... a littleMatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.comBlogger161100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6743974062053784534.post-75241353216296109972010-11-23T02:08:00.000-08:002010-11-23T03:27:21.696-08:00

The word "Attrition" as used by HR departments throughout industry seems like a semantic comfort blanket. In the same way as the terms "ethnic cleansing" and "collateral damage" are linguistic devices to distance ourselves from the reality of what is happening, so "Attrition" is a sanitised nomenclature for an unhappy reality that we'd rather not face. As a recruiter I like to add value by

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6743974062053784534.post-88781087117809171562009-10-04T02:19:00.000-07:002009-10-04T04:10:27.124-07:00

In an online world where YouTube is king of the video realm there are still many pretenders to the crown. There are in fact so many video hosting sites and aggregators of the web video that it was only a matter of time before the recruiting departments of the world's corporations jumped both feet first on to the bandwagon to give us an insight into why they are the right choice for candidates.

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6743974062053784534.post-47362842906814811402009-10-01T07:55:00.000-07:002009-10-01T09:53:08.581-07:00

Recently I've been reading some of the work by psychologist Amos Tversky. Tversky was a cognitive and mathematical psychologist and pioneer in the study of systematic human cognitive bias and how we as humans handle risk. The following scenario is based on research originally completed by him.Imagine you were offered two jobs. They are the same in terms of working hours, duties location and

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6743974062053784534.post-81902553852215069582008-09-08T03:10:00.000-07:002008-09-08T03:24:53.757-07:00

Recently there has been much comment and debate around the issue of salary transparency in organisations. The New York Times columnist Lisa Belkin published an article on this very subject in August. Like many arguments in the world of employment there are pros and cons as you would expect. For those on the pro transparency front the case is a simple one.1. Salaries will become more fair. The

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6743974062053784534.post-77995018411400839012008-09-04T02:41:00.000-07:002008-09-04T06:00:53.233-07:00

The Malleus Maleficarum (Latin for “The Hammer of Witches”, or “Hexenhammer” in German) is one of the most famous medieval treatises on witches. It was written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, and was first published in Germany in 1487. Its main purpose was to challenge all arguments against the existence of witchcraft and to instruct magistrates on how to identify, interrogate and

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6743974062053784534.post-43440315411555030302008-07-09T09:03:00.000-07:002008-07-09T09:31:23.048-07:00

I'm always pleased to read new posts on Johanna Rothman's blog Hiring Technical People, as I feel there is a lot of noise around recruitment hers is a voice of sanity. Her latest entry on Initiative vs. Entrepreneurship seems to match perfectly with my experiences in my current role. In short she advocates hiring those candidates who demonstrate an entrepreneurial streak - whilst they may be a

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6743974062053784534.post-9031564760093147062008-07-09T08:37:00.000-07:002008-07-09T09:03:31.787-07:00

Firstly apologies for not having posted for quite some time. For a while there it looked as though this blog would veer into the same territory as my slack attempts to keep a diary in my teenage years. This time however I have an excuse :) I have now returned from a stint of recruiting in Calgary, Canada and I'm back in London. I've used the intervening time to find a new apartment, replete with

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6743974062053784534.post-77440041627176902082008-06-16T02:06:00.000-07:002008-06-16T02:08:08.668-07:00

As a subscriber to "Diversity Inc" my interest is always piqued when they get round to the core discussion of "values". This month's issue has a really interesting comment in their "Legal Section" simply they pose the question "Can you fire employees with different values?".Weldon Latham a discrimination law attorney suggests that companies should exercise caution in these cases. He uses the

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6743974062053784534.post-69652694337731841752008-05-06T15:39:00.000-07:002008-05-06T16:02:31.047-07:00

Johanna Rothman over at Hiring Technical People has recently blogged a colleague's comments about the benefits of befriending those of the Recruiting persuasion. Although being aimed more at those recruiters working in Agencies I'm not 100% sure I agree with them all.1. Some of the best jobs / candidates are rarely advertisedThis is largely true. When I used to work in an agency often we didn't

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6743974062053784534.post-74878661452191338572008-05-01T20:10:00.000-07:002008-05-01T22:52:45.103-07:00

ThoughtWorks says it's different. It's my role to communicate this "difference" in very real terms to candidates who apply to join us. As recruiters it's something we do everyday, what differentiates us? How are we different? What differences are more attractive that others?It is the communication of difference that causes a problem and if a skilled recruiter can use the cultural differentiators

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6743974062053784534.post-65029742228113175032008-05-01T10:01:00.001-07:002008-05-01T12:56:53.313-07:00

Last night I attended a signing and small soirée for the launch of The ThoughtWorks Anthology.Stelios Pantazopoulos and Ian Robinson were supposed to talk about their contributions and then go on to sign copies of the new book.Stelios gave a great account of his theory about "Project Vital Signs" - the idea that quantitative metrics on a project can be expressed in the same way as a patient's

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6743974062053784534.post-20785895273208610192008-04-30T09:10:00.000-07:002008-05-01T10:00:32.427-07:00

"My name is Matt and I'm a Recruiter."...the rest of the group rise and there's a smattering of applause, the first step on the road to recovery is admission. Finally the guilty truth was out... Is being a recruiter all that bad? Certainly while at school it's not something you aspire to, others wanted to be astronauts and doctors; with recollection I think I wanted to be a fire engine. Note, not

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6743974062053784534.post-63167318087004178112008-04-28T10:47:00.000-07:002008-04-28T13:09:39.343-07:00

For many recruiters reviewing a resume is a simple task. It's binary. The buzzword bingo they play is matched by the increasingly infuriating practice of loading CV's with massive lists of all the technologies that the candidates has ever used, looked at or heard that someone else was using in a nearby room. It's an antipattern created somewhere between naive recruiting practices and savvy

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6743974062053784534.post-59258079147877118122008-04-28T08:50:00.000-07:002008-04-28T10:32:24.355-07:00

As an in-house recruiter there are a number of ways to win over a prospective candidate. A widely adopted and often reneged upon practise is that of throwing money at the person. Said person, pleased with new found affluent status joins your company only to later find he is yet another code monkey in a cubicle. What price spending eight hours a day treading the same worn carpet, surrounded by

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6743974062053784534.post-20360384445576813002008-04-27T23:51:00.000-07:002008-04-28T13:40:30.103-07:00

In all my recruiting activities I'm committed to hiring the most talented individuals working within the IT sector. I'd love to say they are "The Best" on the planet but then, I've not met every one on the planet to compare them. So who do we hire, and how do we do it? When I talk to a candidate I'm trying to assess whether I have to offer what they are looking for. Sometimes we don't, even I

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6743974062053784534.post-33344978503236850162008-04-27T23:04:00.001-07:002008-04-27T23:50:49.904-07:00

In my role I am always interested to see how organisations market themselves to prospective job seekers. Amazon is a wash with books dedicated to the subject. Better interviewing techniques, different questioning styles and shiny new assessments to avoid actually talking to a candidate. In all this how can an organisation justifiably say they hire the "Best" candidates? What does "Best" really

Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15494769375461075068noreply@blogger.com0