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Are You Trying to Hire a Robot or a Human?

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Are You Trying to Hire a Robot or a Human?

I ask this question based on how I've seen companies hire people. I've interviewed many thousands of IT professionals and hired many hundreds of them over the past 12 years or so. What is it I look for? I look for smart people that can do the job.

Obviously, a person needs to have skills that will allow them to perform their job well. But, do they need everything you have on your checklist? Sure, they may need many of those boxes checked but I've seen so many times where a company won't hire a person because they're missing one or two check boxes. I have to ask myself, "Are they hiring a robot for an assembly line or are they hiring a human capable of intelligent thought and reason?" Sometimes I'm not sure.

A robot is really good at repetitive actions but need reprogramming if you want to have them do something different. Also, if something comes along the assembly line that is different, then the robot doesn't know what to do with it and is not capable of figuring it out.

A smart human uses the tools and creativity of a human craftsman to do what he or she needs to do and learns what needs to be learned to perform the job.

I can understand why a company wants an employee robot. They have something they need to do right now and they want somebody that's already done it. Less risk, right? The problem with that short-sighted philosophy is that things in technology are changing all the time. What you needed done six months ago is done differently now. So, how do you hire robots that will adapt to new technology? You don't. You hire smart people that can adapt, learn and reason their way out of a problem.

You need to hire people that are smart and can do the job for the long haul. If you need a robot to do something now, then outsource it or hire a contractor to do it but don't hire a robot unless you like reprogramming it for new tasks that come along.

Next Article: Trying to Hire IT Talent in a Sellers Market?


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From LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20141002013350-7506493-are-you-trying-to-hire-a-robot-or-a-human
Craftlogic Blog Posts: http://www.craftlogic.com/blog

 

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