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13    
14     <p align="center"><b><font size="5">How To Interview And Hire Dave (A
15     Step-By-Step Guide)</font></b></p>
16     <hr>
17     <p><b><u>Bookmarks (To This Page)</u></b></p>
18     <ul>
19     <li><a href="#introduction" target="_self">Introduction</a></li>
20     <li><a href="#marry_supermodel" target="_self">What It Takes To Marry A
21     Supermodel</a></li>
22     <li><a href="#req_interviews" target="_self">My Requirements For Interviews</a></li>
23     <li><a href="#step_by_step" target="_self">The Step By Step Hiring Process</a></li>
24     </ul>
25     <hr>
26     <p><b><u><a name="introduction"></a>Introduction</u></b></p>
27    
28     <p>The interview and hiring process is flawed, especially when it
29     comes to evaluating and hiring top performers.&nbsp; I do not participate in the process without some restrictions.&nbsp;
30     Most of the restrictions come about in reaction to specific abuses I've encountered by
31     employers.</p>
32    
33     <hr>
34     <p><b><u><a name="marry_supermodel"></a>What It Takes To Marry A Supermodel</u></b></p>
35    
36     <p>There is no employer in existence that can keep up with me.&nbsp; I've made
37     original contributions to number theory and real-time analysis; and I have <i> mastered</i> small embedded software development.&nbsp; I've made a career out
38     of innovation and out of solving difficult problems that have plagued embedded
39     control work for decades.&nbsp; I've turned down
40     interviews with <a href="http://www.ibm.com" target="_blank">IBM</a>, <a href="http://www.hp.com" target="_blank">Hewlett-Packard</a>,
41     <a href="http://www.cisco.com" target="_blank">Cisco</a>, and others; for the
42     simple reason that they failed to impress me during an initial phone contact.&nbsp; It is
43     the same game in any organization--defective supervisors and managers
44     who make administrative and technical messes and then saddle engineers with
45     their own negligence; all the while not learning from mistakes and not taking
46     responsibility for their actions.&nbsp; I've not yet encountered an organization that
47     develops embedded software that can even meet the most basic of
48     goals--administrative neatness.&nbsp; All prospective employers are guilty until
49     proven innocent.</p>
50    
51     <p>The typical interview is a mixture of two elements:</p>
52    
53     <ol>
54     <li>Tedious technical questions from interviewers who are not technically
55     mature enough to parse a competent reply.</li>
56     <li>Questions designed to gauge how well I would adapt to mediocrity.</li>
57     </ol>
58     <p>Life is too short for <i>either</i> element, but (2) is particularly
59     annoying.&nbsp; (2) usually comes from supervisors and managers, and it is the
60     same old old set of <i>give us more time</i> attempted deceptions.&nbsp; My
61     message to the individuals who are posing questions in category (2) above is
62     simple:&nbsp; <i>Why don't you spend 1-2 extra hours per day trying to <b>change</b>
63     the situations you warn interview candidates about?</i>&nbsp; My personal
64     interview process is designed to weed out those employers who are not truly
65     interested in performing or competing.</p>
66    
67     <p>I define the following numerical ranking of employers:</p>
68    
69     <div align="center">
70     <center>
71     <table border="0" width="60%">
72     <tr>
73     <td width="21%" align="center"><b>+1 (Positive)</b></td>
74     <td width="7%"> </td>
75     <td width="151%"> An employer who can teach me new skills or give me new insight.</td>
76     </tr>
77     <tr>
78     <td width="21%" align="center"><b>0 (Neutral)</b></td>
79     <td width="7%"> </td>
80     <td width="151%"> An employer that&nbsp;cannot teach me new skills or give
81     me new insight, but will not interfere with my productivity or my
82     ability to contribute to the organization.</td>
83     </tr>
84     <tr>
85     <td width="21%" align="center"><b>-1 (Negative)</b></td>
86     <td width="7%"></td>
87     <td width="151%">An employer that will interfere with my productivity or my
88     ability to contribute to the organization.</td>
89     </tr>
90     </table>
91     </center>
92     </div>
93     <p>No existing organization is <b>+1</b> on the scale above.&nbsp; I make
94     this statement because I'm truly visionary and no employer to date has been able
95     to keep up.</p>
96     <p>It is not appropriate for me to think about an employer in terms of
97     self-actualization or what I might learn on the job, <i>because no employer has
98     anything to teach me</i>.&nbsp; The most I can hope for from an employer is an
99     environment where my performance is not diluted.&nbsp;</p>
100     <p>I rate work environments nearly exclusively on how profoundly the employer
101     will limit my productivity and my ability to make a competitive contribution to
102     the organization.&nbsp; <b>The way to marry a supermodel (me) is to convince me
103     that you can provide an environment free of performance obstacles.</b></p>
104     <hr>
105     <p><b><u><a name="req_interviews"></a>My Requirements For Interviews And The
106     Hire Process</u></b></p>
107    
108     <p>I've found through experience that employers are capable of a lot of unproductive
109     behavior at interviews.</p>
110    
111     <p>The most common difficulty I encounter at interviews is that <i>the
112     interviewer is not technically mature enough to interview me or to understand my
113     responses to questions</i>.&nbsp; Typically, interviewers will pose questions
114     reflecting a lack of insight into the nature of problems or will pose reasonable
115     questions but not be technically mature enough to understand my responses.&nbsp;
116     I've not yet found a completely effective way to avoid the effects of a gap in
117     technical maturity which is too large.</p>
118    
119     <p>My interview requirements, which come directly from unproductive behaviors by employers, are enumerated below.</p>
120    
121     <div align="center">
122     <center>
123     <table border="2" width="100%">
124     <tr>
125     <td width="50%"><b><u>Requirement</u></b></td>
126     <td width="50%"><b><u>Potential Undesirable Behavior</u></b></td>
127     </tr>
128     <tr>
129     <td width="50%"><b>All items representing significant interview expense (airfare, rental
130     car, hotels, copies of books or papers, etc.) must be purchased in advance by the prospective
131     employer or I must be reimbursed in advance.</b></td>
132     <td width="50%">I've encountered employers where it was difficult to
133     obtain reimbursement.&nbsp; I choose not to take the risk that sooner or
134     later, I will encounter an employer where it is <i>impossible</i> to
135     obtain reimbursement.</td>
136     </tr>
137     <tr>
138     <td width="50%"><b>A hiring decision must be made based on only one day of
139     interviews (there will be no second round of interviews).</b></td>
140     <td width="50%">I've had employers ask me in for interviews when they had
141     already decided to hire another candidate but &quot;<i>just wanted to be sure</i>&quot;
142     (this is like asking another girl out on the day before your
143     wedding).&nbsp; I've also quite often had employers fail to disclose in
144     advance the number of interviews required, leading to a situation where
145     I keep receiving phone calls with the message of &quot;<i>... there is one
146     more person who'd like to meet you before we make a decision</i>&quot;.&nbsp;
147     Restricting the interview process to one event prevents abuse by the
148     employer.&nbsp;</td>
149     </tr>
150     <tr>
151     <td width="50%"><b>Interviews in total may not span more than 4 hours.</b></td>
152     <td width="50%">I've been through interviews that lasted the entire
153     day.&nbsp; Typically, each interviewer had a 1-hour slot, and would ask pretty much the same questions as every other interviewer.&nbsp;
154     This is unproductive.&nbsp; In general, the maximum number of
155     individuals that reasonably have a need to meet me are:
156     <ul>
157     <li>A representative from HR.</li>
158     <li>My potential colleagues.</li>
159     <li>My potential boss.</li>
160     <li>My potential boss' boss.</li>
161     </ul>
162     <p>That can all be squeezed into 4 hours or less.&nbsp; The easiest way
163     to do this is to combine the interviews of all potential colleagues or
164     combine the interviews in other ways.</td>
165     </tr>
166     <tr>
167     <td width="50%"><b>Interviews must not include lunch.</b></td>
168     <td width="50%">I do not believe that a lunch with a candidate has any
169     value in evaluating the candidate's fit with a particular job or a
170     particular company.</td>
171     </tr>
172     <tr>
173     <td width="50%"><b>Reference checks must be made <i>after</i> a decision
174     to hire.</b></td>
175     <td width="50%">I've had problems in the past with recruiters and
176     prospective employers wasting a lot of my references' time by checking
177     references too early in the hire process.&nbsp; Some reference checks
178     have been quite invasive (20+ minutes of questions).
179     <p>For this reason I require that reference checks be the absolute <i>last</i>
180     step in the process.
181     <p>I would also add that reference checks have a limited value in
182     evaluating top performers such as me.&nbsp; Some employers in the past
183     have placed undue emphasis on the opinions of previous
184     supervisors.&nbsp; Since all supervisors I've encountered in the past
185     are substandard performers, the opinions they would give are
186     predictable.&nbsp; One could expect statements like &quot;<i>He couldn't
187     accept mediocrity</i>&quot; or &quot;<i>He was uncontrollable</i>&quot;.&nbsp;
188     The true meaning of those statements is &quot;<i>He was not satisfied
189     with my performance, and in some cases discussed it with me frankly and
190     asked me to work a bit harder</i>&quot;.&nbsp; The opinions of past
191     supervisors are meaningless.</td>
192     </tr>
193     </table>
194     </center>
195     </div>
196    
197     <hr>
198     <p><b><u><a name="step_by_step"></a>The Step By Step Hiring Process</u></b></p>
199     <p>The steps below, in the order listed below, are required of prospective
200     employers.&nbsp; Many employers are unwilling to follow the steps below, and
201     have even described me as arrogant or unemployable.&nbsp; What can I say?&nbsp;
202     Not everybody gets to marry a supermodel!</p>
203     <div align="center">
204     <center>
205     <table border="2" width="100%">
206     <tr>
207     <td width="11%" align="center"><b><u>Step Number</u></b></td>
208     <td width="44%"><b><u>Step</u></b></td>
209     <td width="45%"><b><u>Detailed Description Or Rationale</u></b></td>
210     </tr>
211     <tr>
212     <td width="11%" align="center">1</td>
213     <td width="44%">The recruiter or prospective employer must e-mail or FAX
214     me a job description.</td>
215     <td width="45%">I do not go to interviews or proceed further into the
216     process unless I understand what I would be expected to do on the job.</td>
217     </tr>
218     <tr>
219     <td width="11%" align="center">2</td>
220     <td width="44%">I must be assigned a liaison with the prospective employer
221     (typically an engineering manager or an HR representative), and I must
222     be provided with contact information (phone number and e-mail
223     address).&nbsp; All subsequent contact (travel arrangements, interview
224     arrangements, questions, etc.) must occur through this liaison.</td>
225     <td width="45%">I've found from experience that dealing exclusively with
226     recruiters leads to information filtering problems.&nbsp; I deal with
227     employers directly.</td>
228     </tr>
229     <tr>
230     <td width="11%" align="center">3</td>
231     <td width="44%">I must be advised of the job title, and it must be
232     acceptable.</td>
233     <td width="45%">Any job offered must be as a senior engineer, a technical
234     specialist, or above.&nbsp; I had to turn down one job in the past
235     because the job title was not acceptable.</td>
236     </tr>
237     <tr>
238     <td width="11%" align="center">4</td>
239     <td width="44%">I must agree with the prospective employer on the salary
240     range.</td>
241     <td width="45%">In the past, I had to turn down one job because the
242     recruiter had indicated one salary range but the employer had in mind
243     another (with apparently no communication between them).</td>
244     </tr>
245     <tr>
246     <td width="11%" align="center">5</td>
247     <td width="44%">I must obtain permission to maintain a *nix server within
248     the company (usually, near my desk).</td>
249     <td width="45%">I have a unique mechanism for storing information and
250     collaborating with bosses and colleagues.&nbsp; I maintain all my
251     project notes and other materials (I've gone nearly paperless) on a *nix
252     server which I administer, and this is also the mechanism I use to share
253     information with bosses and colleagues.&nbsp; The server normally
254     includes a search engine.&nbsp; Usually, permission involves only a
255     short conversation or e-mail exchange with the company's IT
256     manager.&nbsp; I don't work in environments where I am not allowed to
257     maintain a server, because it impedes my ability to organize and share
258     information.</td>
259     </tr>
260     <tr>
261     <td width="11%" align="center">6</td>
262     <td width="44%">The prospective employer must complete my online software
263     maturity questionnaire and e-mail me the results.</td>
264     <td width="45%">I'm interested in the technical maturity and desire to
265     compete of the prospective employer.&nbsp; A low score on the
266     questionnaire does not necessarily mean that I would exclude a
267     prospective employer from consideration; but it means there would need
268     to be a very persuasive pitch from the prospective employer to convince
269     me that the employer really wants to reform.</td>
270     </tr>
271     <tr>
272     <td width="11%" align="center">7</td>
273     <td width="44%">The prospective employer must e-mail me the organization's
274     coding standards document for analysis.</td>
275     <td width="45%">I've found that coding standards documents (or the lack
276     thereof) are the single best indicator of an employer's level of
277     technical maturity.&nbsp; I examine these documents in advance.</td>
278     </tr>
279     <tr>
280     <td width="11%" align="center">8</td>
281     <td width="44%">I will make a decision about whether to move forward.</td>
282     <td width="45%">For the vast majority of employers, I choose not to pursue
283     the opportunity.&nbsp; Usually, the process stops at this step.&nbsp;
284     The normal reason I choose not to pursue the opportunity is that the
285     employer has failed to convince me that they desire to compete.</td>
286     </tr>
287     <tr>
288     <td width="11%" align="center">9</td>
289     <td width="44%">Interviews.</td>
290     <td width="45%">Please see my <a href="#req_interviews" target="_self">requirements
291     for interviews</a>, above.</td>
292     </tr>
293     <tr>
294     <td width="11%" align="center">10</td>
295     <td width="44%">A verbal commitment to hire, subject to reference and/or
296     background checks.</td>
297     <td width="45%">If the employer wishes to hire me, they must offer a
298     non-binding statement of intent to hire (a casual e-mail is acceptable),
299     subject to reference checks and background checks.&nbsp; (This allows me
300     to avoid burdening my references unless there is true intent to hire.)</td>
301     </tr>
302     <tr>
303     <td width="11%" align="center">11</td>
304     <td width="44%">Reference checks, background checks, drug tests, etc.</td>
305     <td width="45%">Only at this point in the process will I provide
306     references.</td>
307     </tr>
308     <tr>
309     <td width="11%" align="center">12</td>
310     <td width="44%">Decision by prospective employer about whether to hire.</td>
311     <td width="45%">The employer must make the final decision about whether to
312     extend an offer.</td>
313     </tr>
314     <tr>
315     <td width="11%" align="center">13</td>
316     <td width="44%">Letter of offer.</td>
317     <td width="45%">The employer may extend a written offer.</td>
318     </tr>
319     <tr>
320     <td width="11%" align="center">14</td>
321     <td width="44%">Decision by me about whether to accept the offer.</td>
322     <td width="45%">I will make a decision about whether to accept the offer.</td>
323     </tr>
324     </table>
325     </center>
326     </div>
327    
328     <hr>
329     <p align="center" style="margin-top: -2; margin-bottom: -1"><font size="1">Sound
330     credit:&nbsp; <a href="http://www.rleeermey.com" target="_blank">R. Lee Ermey</a>.<br>
331     This
332     web page is maintained by <a href="mailto:dtashley@users.sourceforge.net">David
333     T. Ashley</a>.<br>$Header: /cvsroot/esrg/sfesrg/esrgweba/htdocs/authindiv/dtashley/hiring_dave/index.html,v 1.5 2003/05/11 07:11:27 dtashley Exp $</font></p>
334     <hr noshade size="5">
335    
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337    
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