Comments on: New eyes

By: Gordon McLean

Gordon McLean — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:07:54 +0000

Bill - yes, all of the above, I was just trying to convey that it’s a stressful thing to go through, for a large variety of differing reasons.

By: Bill Teales

Bill Teales — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:00:02 +0000

Fraught with what? Joy? Difficulties? Interest? Questions?

By: Gordon McLean

Gordon McLean — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 12:31:14 +0000

catherine - by the nature of the fact I’ve hired them, I’d be confident that they’d understand why revamping the installation guide is an ideal task for them.

Ideally it would be a no-holds barred exercise as well, with all options on the table.

By: catherine

catherine — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:21:49 +0000

It’s a great strategy for a new hire. How do you make it clear to the newbie that there is real benefit in their ignorance, rather than them perhaps interpreting this task as a kind of fraternity hazing ritual? It could be quite stressful for them, do you do anything specifically to counteract that?

I too would be interested in reading about your interview strategies.

By: Kai

Kai — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:53:51 +0000

Huh - how appropriate: I’ve signed on with a new employer and just started this month, so I can totally relate! So my comments are sort of from a subject’s point of view - albeit, a somewhat reflective one, I would hope… ;-)

In my current company, I’ve just completed three weeks of very thorough training - even if it merely scratched the surface of our rather complex product. So it didn’t give me all required expertise, but certainly the confidence to jump right into the current development lifecycle and start to pull my load. And I look forward to it more than to a typical beginner’s task which often smacks of a semi-popular, semi-important job such as updating screenshots.

I second your point about corporate culture, though I find it a bit difficult to convey, because setting examples speaks louder than just talking about it.

- And yes, I’d be very interested to hear about yout interview process, esp. about what you found worked well and what didn’t.