Spolsky to revamp ‘recruiting’ into ‘dating’
26 February 2014
The man some might regard as the patron saint of good working conditions for programmers says he aims to revamp the way that jobseekers and employers discover each other on the Stack Overflow careers 2.0 site.
Thu, 27 Feb 2014 | DeeDee Doke
The man some might regard as the patron saint of good working conditions for programmers says he aims to revamp the way that jobseekers and employers discover each other on the Stack Overflow careers 2.0 site.
Speaking to Recruiter this week, Joel Spolsky, co-creator of the Stack Overflow information-sharing website for programmers, says that he plans to transform the site’s own careers section into “more of a dating model” from the current, traditional form of job advertisements and listings.
Spolsky tells Recruiter that his vision of a dating model would see jobseekers asked to “tell us a little about yourself”, after which they would be introduced online to “five great employers”. Employers seeking programmers would be asked to submit information about their organisations, after which they would be introduced to “five great programmers”, Spolsky says, whose skills and employment desires were compatible with the organisations’ needs and offering.
In 2000, Spolsky created the Joel Test, a 12-step approach to rate the quality of a software team. Jobseeking programmers are advised to ask questions of potential employers to gauge whether the hiring organisation is a place they want to work. However, his influence on recruiting practices beyond the software/programmer environment has been widely acknowledged.
He tells Recruiter that the key to finding hard-to-find recruits is not looking harder for them, “it’s to make your employment opportunity better, make it a better place to work, a more intelligent place to work”.
The hardest sell of his suggestions to date, he says, is the idea of giving programmers private offices. “That’s the hardest one, the one I’ve been preaching for the longest time,” he admits. He adds that the time for private offices may have passed, to be replaced by working at home.
Speaking to Recruiter this week, Joel Spolsky, co-creator of the Stack Overflow information-sharing website for programmers, says that he plans to transform the site’s own careers section into “more of a dating model” from the current, traditional form of job advertisements and listings.
Spolsky tells Recruiter that his vision of a dating model would see jobseekers asked to “tell us a little about yourself”, after which they would be introduced online to “five great employers”. Employers seeking programmers would be asked to submit information about their organisations, after which they would be introduced to “five great programmers”, Spolsky says, whose skills and employment desires were compatible with the organisations’ needs and offering.
In 2000, Spolsky created the Joel Test, a 12-step approach to rate the quality of a software team. Jobseeking programmers are advised to ask questions of potential employers to gauge whether the hiring organisation is a place they want to work. However, his influence on recruiting practices beyond the software/programmer environment has been widely acknowledged.
He tells Recruiter that the key to finding hard-to-find recruits is not looking harder for them, “it’s to make your employment opportunity better, make it a better place to work, a more intelligent place to work”.
The hardest sell of his suggestions to date, he says, is the idea of giving programmers private offices. “That’s the hardest one, the one I’ve been preaching for the longest time,” he admits. He adds that the time for private offices may have passed, to be replaced by working at home.
