

How to Hire—and Get Hired—in a Recession - prakash
http://www.businessweek.com/print/smallbiz/content/apr2009/sb20090414_087017.htm

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evilneanderthal
I didn't think much of this article.

A requirement to work nights, weekends, and vacation is called a death march,
not hard work.

"How to get hired: give off every indication that your time is worthless.
Agree to anything that is asked of you without regard to compensation. Act
like being burnt out is a standard that indicates professionalism."

The article might as well be titled "How to hate life - and get divorced - in
a recession."

~~~
azanar
You reacted better than I did, then. I was positively repulsed.

The hypothetical dialogue he provided between the candidate at employer
suggests what he is really looking for here: people who are honorable. But it
has to be his definition of honor, which is entirely image-based and self-
sacrificial. You make a spectacle of the duration of your presence at the
office, and you make eloquent speeches about the spectacle you will make of
yourself. Keeping up the spectacle requires long hours, tangible evidence of
disciplined behavior, and political maneuvering.

The spectacle doesn't matter, what you accomplish does. And what you
accomplish is not linear with the number of hours you put in. In fact,
figuring out a correlation is damn near impossible, because of variables like
the type of work, which hours were worked, what distractions were present, and
how much subconscious thought entered into all of this while not actively
working. I'm probably missing several other variables, but the idea is there.

This article amuses me, because outside of possible questions in interviews,
there is absolutely no indication of what the potentially employee _does_
outside of posturing and preening. The entire article seems like an exercise
in the very same sort of posturing he would like to see his ideal candidate do
during the interview, along with enough handwavey, fearmongering bullshit to
panic people into doing what he says. If we want to know why more people are
becoming entrepreneurial, this gentleman's ideals are one of the catalysts.

~~~
menloparkbum
_The spectacle doesn't matter, what you accomplish does._

Some people start companies because they have a deep seated need to be "the
boss." In these companies spectacle often takes precedence over everything
else.

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strlen
This is horrible advice. First, this won't weed out the "clock punchers". It
_will_ do is hire the "clock punchers" who punch their clocks 1930 instead of
at 1730: the focus here is still on _having an appearance of doing work_, not
on doing work.

It will also create a great degree of churn: people will put on a show just to
get the job and then leave after a few months. Churn is _always_ incredibly
expensive and demoralizing and kills start-ups: to some degree it's not
avoidable in a start-up, but this is just asking for it.

So how do you hire hard working and passionate people? It's much simpler: is
this something that they do for fun? Do they have side projects or participate
in open source projects (which may conflict with the idea of them spending all
their time at the office!)? Do they give any indication of a passion for their
work (instead of just putting on a show and telling you what they wan to
hear?)

Lastly, this is just plain bad advise for employees as well. Like in dating,
you don't want to _look desperate_ : especially in a situation where the
competition is so high. Talking about long hours and weekends you will put in
and how you just want a subsistence salary will show desperation.

------
Chocobean
I've worked 10+ hour days for months, before, and I can do it again, but it'll
cost the employer. It'll cost him in money , productivity, and goodwill.

No more unpaid overtime, and you'll be paying more per hour as well. I'm only
flesh and blood, so after so many hours, the over time will actually be
counter-productive, but I'm sure you already know that. And once the economy
recovers even slightly, or as soon as I get a new offer, I'm gone.

Little Chinese saying: You want a horse that's good, and you want a horse that
doesn't eat grass. Can't be done, brother; at least, not for long.

~~~
ibsulon
Honestly, it's a different thing to be in a position where a job is monitoring
-- IE, 8 hours of the day are meetings, 3-4 hours a day are tracking and
writing email. I can work 12 hours a day doing that because it's not that
difficult. It feels like work, it _is_ work. However, it's not banging your
head against the wall on a problem, or writing documentation, or...

Creative positions have a maximum output. Sometimes, I've worked more hours
because the other time is taken up by meetings, and I don't burn out nearly as
quickly as when I'm working to write or debug code.

As such, I wonder if the hiring advice is better for sales/management.

------
dusklight
Hmm what is more honorable, for the employee to stay until the employer leaves
.. or for the employer to stay until all the employee leaves?

If you followed his advice as far as interview questions go, as an employer,
you would be screening out the best candidates -- those who are bright enough
to figure out that you are trying to squeeze unpaid overtime out of them, and
who have other options and sufficient self respect to reject such underhanded
methods.

