September 2015: Best IT Hiring Practices

The average hiring mistake costs 15 times an employee’s base salary in hard costs and productivity loss according to the book “Who” by Geoff Smart and Randy Street. To avoid hiring mistakes, managers have their own philosophies and IT hiring practices, but how can one ensure the best team is being built with the best people?  It starts with defining principles and characteristics of employees and leaders that can help achieve organizational objectives and maintain company culture, and is supported by being patient to find the right person as to not unbalance your team and as a manager, owning the responsibility for finding great talent.

Below are articles recently featured on LinkedIn from industry leading executives at Apple, AT&T, Virgin Group and Yahoo.

Managers Typically Only Make a Few Hires a Year. Here’s How to Make Them Count.

It’s all about people. We know the key to success is having great people. It’s great people who build great technology; it’s great people who inspire others to do their best work; it’s great people who make a great company. Consequently, hiring right is one of the most crucial tasks we have. Think of the potential if we got really good at hiring. Read full article

How I Hire: My Guiding Principles

Experience and age are great gifts when it comes to effectively and successfully hiring and retaining great talent. Below are my guiding principles of hiring gleaned from 34 years of learnings — the four areas I focus candidates on and the questions I typically use as my filter in the first hour we have together. Read full article

What I’m Looking for Isn’t on Your Resume

Some of the most important qualifications I look for in new hires are not listed in candidates’ resumes. And yet, these qualifications can make the difference between a successful hire. Even more important, they can make a difference between achieving our business goals and being tomorrow’s headline. Read full article

You Can’t Fake Personality, Passion or Purpose

Each week, our jobs mailboxes are loaded with people wanting to become part of the Virgin story – but unfortunately not everyone can join the team. To help us find the best people for the roles on offer, we are guided by a few very-Virgin values. Here are the four principles that we feel make a successful professional. Read full article


 

Security Corner:

Is poor software development the biggest cyber threat? The disconnect between software developers and IT security teams has lead to widespread application vulnerabilities. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) states that 90 percent of security incidents result from exploits against defects in software.  That’s a big statement – and it implies that poor software development may be the biggest cyber threat of all. Read full article

 


 

Upcoming Events:

Houston TechFest

Annual, one-day Internet and Technology based conference in Houston Texas, which is free and open to the Public. September 12th More info/event website

Houston Oracle Users Group Sponsored by Whitaker IT

Monthly meeting September 24th. HOUG provides the events and latest developments in the Oracle field of information, technology and database developments. It’s a place to network and share experiences with the uses and practices of the Oracle applications and tools. More info/event website

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Staff Blogging

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Is Job Hopping Hurting or Helping Your IT Career

    Is Job Hopping Hurting or Helping Your IT Career?   In the past, job hopping (the practice of changing jobs frequently) was often seen as a negative thing, as it was seen as a sign of instability and a lack of loyalty. However,...

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